You probably know that friend who has the greatest idea that could potentially be a unicorn, but their problem ranges from getting a technical co-founder that can help them build out the product, to figuring out equity for this co-founder when they find him/her.

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How then do you navigate finding a co-founder?

Well, first and foremost, it's important to remember that finding a co-founder is like finding a life partner - you need to look for someone who shares your vision, hunger, values and work ethic. This means taking the time to get to know potential candidates before making any commitments.

One way to find potential co-founders is through networking events, industry conferences or even online forums and platforms specifically for connecting startup founders. An example is the Ycombinator Co-founder Matching program.

Linkedin is also a great tool for reaching out to people who may be interested in what you want to build. After connecting, reach out, tell them what you are looking to achieve and see if they are interested.

Once you've found a potential match, it's crucial to communicate clearly about expectations, responsibilities and equity split. This is where having an agreement in writing becomes crucial - it may be awkward to discuss these things, but it's important to have everything laid out clearly from the start to avoid any conflicts or misunderstandings later on.

One popular approach for splitting equity between co-founders is the "dynamic equity split" where each founder's contribution, experience and commitment are taken into account when determining their percentage of ownership. This can be revisited and adjusted as the company grows and roles and responsibilities change.

“Dynamic equity splits make no assumptions about the future value of a company. It doesn’t matter what the future value will be. All that matters is that when you actually create future value everyone who risked something to help you get there should get their fair share of what’s created. Only a dynamic equity split can achieve this.” Read more on this on Slicing Pie.

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