Co-founders, how many and how do you choose them?

It is said that success has many fathers.  Similarly, innovation often requires input from more than one individual. A founder has a vision - to bring something new to the market; but this vision always requires support. So picking a co-founder is the most important decision when starting a company. More important than your product, market size or the investors. As one investor once told me about his criteria to judge start-ups, Team, Team, Team, Idea!

The ideal founding team is two (or more) complementary individuals, where one can build and the other can sell. Even better is when the individuals have a history of working together, are similar in age and financial standing.

Two is the perfect number – think Hewlett and Packard, Jobs and Wozniak, Allen and Gates, Omidyar and Skoll and there are others. One (Facebook) or three founder (Twitter) companies can work but do come with their own sets of challenges.

In three of more founder companies, there are issues of politics, gang-up votes, board seat issues. A 4-5 founder scenario in a company brings its own challenges. A start-up needs to be dynamic, agile and rational. With more than two founders, this can be more difficult.  Two is simpler, because unanimity is possible, leading to quick implementation of decisions, and perhaps most importantly, founder stakes are high post financing which keeps them motivated.

So how do you choose a co-founder?

•      (Preferably) someone you have worked with in the past - knowing the other persons reaction through the highs and lows. It’s the lows which matter to see the durability of the relationship
• I (intelligence) E (energy) I (integrity) – Building a start-up is a tough job and you will need the IEI between your co-founder and you to build the right company
• A good level of technical understanding – Ensure your co-founder has a strong grasp of technology. Both founders should have a good level of understanding of how products are built, technical intricacies of the product, and the architecture of what’s being built. This level of understanding really helps when you are out, trying to develop Product / Market fit and making changes to your proposition to perfect it based on user + business experience.
• A classic set up is one builder, one seller – One founder needs to focus on building a great product, going through numerous iterations based on customer feedback while keeping the vision of the company in mind. The other needs to focus on selling; a good seller can sell to customers, investors, partners and one’s own employees)!
• A great talent scout – The founders set a company’s DNA, and the culture is an extension of the founders’ personalities. It’s the initial DNA of the first 10-20 employees that will define the culture of a company forever. A good co-founder will attract the best talent and help you build the right culture. Building a great team around you is crucial to build the vision. Hiring (the best) people takes a lot of time, esp. the initial recruiting and scouting. Often founders spend an enormous amount of time in the early days of the company identifying and hiring the right people to join the company. One of my favourite examples is how Tony Hsieh offered $3k to employees who wanted to leave - an efficient filter  
• Walk the walk with Investors: Raising capital from investors requires multiple pitch meetings (as few as just two before Term Sheet with Episode 1), email exchanges, negotiation and all the paperwork, which follows. A (ideal) co-founder with experience or knowledge in this can be very helpful from the first meeting to the signing of the shareholders agreements.
• Breakup – If you realise that it isn’t working out with your co-founder, cut the cord early. Recover the founder equity, run the company and find someone better to fill their shoes. Make sure you have founder vesting from the get go to keep breakups from destroying the company.

I am recently married, and a lot of the points are applicable to a marriage as it is to finding the right business partner. It’s a marriage of a different sort, you will certainly spend more time with your co-founder than your wife. So, be wise and choose carefully, because with the right co-founder, building a company is a whole lot easier. Like a company goes from strength to strength until IPO, I look forward to connecting again on this subject when I reach the next level in my marriage…

Sandbox Network - Paris Meetup

Time	Friday, November 26 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location	Depending on final numbers. We have secured 3 places. (Options below)
Created By	Michaela Wood
More Info	We invite you to the first Paris Sandbox meetup. Some organizations incubate companies - Sandbox incubates people. Our mission is to accelerate young innovators and help them to have a global impact. Our goal is to connect young people with different skill-sets who are passionate about what they are doing. We give them the right environment to grow and to leverage their creative capacity. In a trusted environment (online & offline), each person will be able to build meaningful relationships, learn from each other and get access to resources, a network of innovators and senior people that will help them realize their next big idea. Our members are innovators from all fields: research, art, architecture & design, creative industries, business, venture capital, high tech entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, journalism & writing etc. We have no affiliation. The growing community counts 450 young leaders in more than 80 cities in 40 different countries. One focus of Sandbox Network is to create local communities with physical spaces where members can get together. Sandbox organises regular events in New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangalore, Delhi, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Prague, Geneva, Zurich, Stockholm, Moscow, St Petersburg. We invite you to the first Paris meetup! We have secured 3 places and will go for 1 of them depending on final numbers (Carpe Diem, Le Bistrot des Colonnes, Le Palais de Tokyo). Please RSVP before Wednesday 24). For any questions, feel free to contact me: woodm@hec.fr

Event Registration @ http://on.fb.me/d57xW9

How arre teens using their cellphones...?

(Click on image to zoom in)

Brands4Friends launches in Japan

Brands4friends a leader in Pvt. Sales in Germany & Austria (and UK with SecretSales) has recently opened doors in Japan

Brands for friends Japan will be headed by Armel Cahierre

www.brands4friends.jp

(seen on two extremities L-R are Armel Cahierre B4F Japan CEO & Christian Heitmeyer B4F CEO)

German Apple Ad featuring Qype

See Qype Radar features here or download on iTunes here

Goom launches iTélé La Radio

iTélé La Radio: Listen here by Goom

Best iPhone Apps of 2009 (via CNET)

Best iPhone Apps of 2009:

Best Social Media App: Facebook

Sixty-five million people a month currently access Facebook from their mobile phones, according to the social network. Its impressive iPhone application shows why mobile is exploding for Facebook. The original app has been upgraded twice, most recently with a new icon-based homescreen and personalisation features to help users keep tabs on their most important friends. The app is an excellent example of focusing on the features most useful for users on the go, while also making it simple to upload photos and videos. The best Facebook app on any platform, and currently the best example of social media on the iPhone.
Download from iTunes: free

Best Game: Flight Control

With more than 20,000 games available, the iPhone is laying waste to DS and PSP for quantity. What about quality, though? While there's no shortage of visually stunning 3D titles emerging, it's actually a 2D game that's taken the App Store by storm. The subject is air-traffic control: planes appear on-screen, and you guide them in to land by tracing their flight paths with your finger -- making sure they don't crash. Updates throughout the year have added new levels and aircraft, while its online leaderboards have fuelled bragging. There's even a Google Maps mash-up showing the top players around the world.
Download from iTunes: 59p

Best Celebrity App: Jamie's 20 Minute Meals

Jamie Oliver as an iPhone star? You might not like the man, but you can't find fault with his application. It's a collection of 50 recipes, complete with step-by-step instructions, photos and even 75 minutes of video of the man himself. No expense has been spared, either: the photos make everything look ravishing, the instructions are idiot-proof, and there's even a shopping list feature to help when sourcing the ingredients. Everything is part of the app too -- it's a whopping 404MB in size -- so you're never left stranded in mid-masala if you lose your connection. Proper -- sorry about this -- pukka.
Download from iTunes: £4.99

Best Music App: Spotify

Spotify doesn't need more gushing from us -- the streaming-music service has been feted by journalists, celebrities and music-biz bosses alike this year. Its iPhone app still deserves a hearty cheer though, for getting around the key Achilles Heel of streaming-music apps: what happens when you get on the Tube? With Spotify, what happens is you switch to the 3,333 songs you've cached on the iPhone itself, in playlists. The free-to-download app requires a £9.99 monthly subscription to actually work, but it's a powerful reason to upgrade. Now, if only it could run in the background like the Android version...
Download from iTunes: free, plus £9.99 per month

Best Office App: Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite

Would you believe it: Microsoft hasn't released its Office suite for iPhone. That's left the way clear for rivals, with Quickoffice Mobile Suite being the best of the bunch so far. Its basic features include Quickword and Quicksheet for editing Word and Excel docs respectively. Copy and paste, text formatting, formulas and all the other features you'd expect are there. But it's the features beyond that which make it a must-have for iPhone-toting workers. Files can be transferred over Wi-Fi, and it can be used to remotely access your MobileMe iDisk. But even just for basic document editing, it's an excellent choice.
Download from iTunes: £5.99

Best News App: Newsstand

As a headline-surfing tool, the iPhone is a joy -- from iPhone-optimised Web sites such as BBC News and The Guardian through to dedicated apps for a host of newspapers and broadcasters. For those with a slightly more technical bent, however, Newsstand is the best RSS reader available on any smart phone. Partly because of its smooth synchronisation with Google Reader online, and partly because it's slick and smart. Categories, an integrated mini-browser, and the ability to share stories via email or Twitter all work like a dream, while there's also the option to browse via a virtual newspaper rack. That feature's a novelty, but the app is most certainly not.
Download from iTunes: £2.99

Best Novelty App: I Am T-Pain

Spotify might be the best iPhone app for listening to music, but I Am T-Pain is the most innovative and downright silly (in a good way) app for making it. The app uses the same Auto-Tune technology that every R&B star and their aunt has used in the last year, allowing you to sing along to a selection of T-Pain songs with your voice turned suitably robot-like. The results can then be published to Facebook or emailed to friends -- with a freestyle mode to send them any message you like. I Am T-Pain is a novelty, but it's a novelty that'll keep you and your friends laughing like a drain for, ooh, weeks. Which is weeks longer than most novelty apps.
Download from iTunes: £1.79

Best Money-Saver: Meter Readings

iPhone users who are parsimonious with their remaining pennies will love Meter Readings, which for just 59p aims to save you much, much more in the long term. How? It lets you track your household utility meters -- electricity, gas and water -- and then calculates how much you're using them and how much it's costing you. Crucially, it supports the fiddly multi-tariffs favoured by many energy suppliers here in the UK, before turning everything into pretty graphs to pore over when trying to figure out whether to change supplier. Not an app you'll show off in the pub, but one that'll ensure you can afford a few extra rounds.
Download from iTunes: 59p

Best Communications App: Nimbuzz

The best messaging app for iPhone remains its native email client, but since that comes built in, we've looked further afield. Nimbuzz is the best unified instant-messaging app for iPhone, supporting traditional IM networks like Yahoo, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger, as well as social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. The addition of Skype is what makes it worth having, however, as does its price: free. Its interface does a good job of making sense of all these networks, and the latest version offers push notifications. Against stiff competition, this is the app we'd recommend for now.
Download from iTunes: free

Best Finance App: iXpenseIt

Like Meter Readings, this app isn't one of the sexier uses for iPhone. It's mightily useful, however, for anyone looking to track expenses or plan a monthly budget. The interface is clean and quick to use, with good visual representations of your spending by category. It feels secure too -- a concern for many corporate users -- with password protection and the ability to backup and restore data at will. And if you want a gimmick -- but a genuinely useful one -- you can take snaps of individual receipts to be stored in your records too. Just what the company accountant ordered.
Download from iTunes: £2.99

Best Health App: iFitness

Want to lose pounds at a startling rate? Buy a pay-as-you-go iPhone. Ho ho ho. But if you're looking to get fit, there's no shortage of iPhone apps that can help. iFitness is the most polished and comprehensive one available, offering a database of more than 230 exercises, complete with photos showing how you should look when doing them. There are instructions too, but the real value of this app is the ability to compile a custom workout, and track your progress -- complete with the ability to email the results to yourself. The ability to backup this data is important, too.
Download from iTunes: £1.19

Best Travel App: Qype Radar

Yes, you can use your iPhone to find train times, but what to do once you get where you're going? For a British audience, this is where Qype Radar comes in. It offers user reviews of restaurants, bars, shops, hotels and hundreds of other categories of place, with a five-star ratings system, and extra information including addresses and phone numbers. It ties in Google Maps to offer directions, and also lets you upload your own reviews from your iPhone, including photos. Plenty of blather is talked about user-generated content, but Qype Radar is one of the apps making UGC genuinely useful in your daily life.
Download from iTunes: free

Best Location App: foursquare

The same people who were buzzing about Twitter in its early days are buzzing about foursquare now. Cynics may mutter that this isn't a recommendation, but it's certainly a sign foursquare should be more than a novelty. The gist is simple: 'check in' when visiting places in a supported city (only London so far in the UK), and earn Xbox-style achievement badges for specific milestones. It's part game, competing against your friends for points, but also part nightlife guide, letting you see who's been where most recently. It relies on having a few mates using it, but if you do, it's an intriguing mash-up of social networking, location and game.
Download from iTunes: free

Best Utility: RedLaser

Are barcodes exciting? Not really. But RedLaser makes a good fist of making them much more interesting. It lets you scan barcodes using your iPhone camera, identifying products and then hunting down the best price online via Google Products and Amazon. The key use: you're in a shop and want to check if a product is available cheaper online. It's fully localised for the UK in terms of currency and Web sites, too. The serious use might be saving cash and sending high-street firms bust, but the silly use involves scanning every barcode in sight, just to see if you can stump it.
Download from iTunes: £1.19

Best Kids App: Bebot Robot Synth

Bebot isn't designed specifically for kids: it's not one of the many colour-spotting, shape-sorting toddler apps on the iPhone. Even so, it's the single app that's made this writer's child constantly try to steal dad's iPhone throughout 2009. It's a musical synthesiser that's capable of some powerful effects, if you get into the filtering, looping and distortion settings. What's of more relevance to toddlers, however, is the fact that when they touch the screen, a cartoon robot moves his mouth to make the noises. Simple, but sublime. If proper techno DJs had this, they might smile more.
Download from iTunes: £1.19

Most Futuristic App: Layar Reality Browser

We'll admit it: the main reason right now for having an augmented-reality browser on your iPhone is so you can tell people you have an augmented-reality browser on your iPhone. It sounds a bit Tron, and is a cheaper alternative to an actual lightbike. But AR apps such as Layar are also hugely intriguing, layering Web data over your handset's live camera feed, letting you spin round in Piccadilly Circus, for example, and see what places nearby have Wikipedia entries. Developers can create their own layers for anything they like -- gigs, house prices, sex offenders... It's a glimpse at the future. Possibly.
Download from iTunes: free

(via CNET)