Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett said choosing a co-founder can make or break a business.
The Diary of a CEO host said a lot of the entrepreneurs who pitch to him for investment are doomed to fail because they picked the wrong co-founder.
The 33-year-old said his own experience with FlightStory Studio’s co-founders, Christiana Brenton and Georgie Holt, taught him one of the most important lessons in business.
Brenton and Holt were inspired to approach Bartlett with a business idea after reading one of his LinkedIn posts about his plans to build his own network around the success of The Diary of a CEO.
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The Dragons’ Den star was so impressed that he responded immediately and the trio co-founded the successful media and technology company FlightStory Studio in November 2023.
Bartlett said: “These two have taught me more about the importance of great co-founders than I have ever learnt in my life.
“Having a decent co-founder is better than having no co-founder, and having no co-founder is much, much better than having a bad co-founder.
“A lot of younger entrepreneurs don’t realise that a bad co-founder isn’t just an underperforming employee you can manage around, they own equity, they’re in every important decision for the rest of your company’s life and they’re setting the culture of the team in everything they do or don’t do.
“You can’t ‘fire’ them. You can’t ignore them. You can’t pivot around them. They are welded to your future whether you like it or not.
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“Most people choose co-founders the way an 18-year-old chooses a tattoo…quickly, emotionally, and based on who’s available after a quick browse.
“Then they spend the next three-5-10 years praying it was right and dealing with the consequences of it being wrong.”
Bartlett previously co-founded social media marketing agency Social Chain with Dominic McGregor in 2014.
Writing on LinkedIn, he said: “The reason ‘no co-founder’ beats ‘bad co-founder’ is because building something alone is hard but solvable. You can hire help, build a team and find advisors.
“Building with the wrong person is much more unsolvable. You’ve created a permanent obstacle that can’t be removed without potentially killing the company.
“Before you choose a co-founder, everyone should ask themselves: would I marry this person’s work ethic, communication style, and decision-making process?
“Because that’s essentially what you’re doing. You’re marrying their professional self, with all the legal complexity of an actual marriage and none of the romance.
“Christiana Brenton and Georgie Holt are such perfect co-founders for me because we share identical values, different but complementary skills, and a fundamentally different way of seeing problems.
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“The worst co-founders share the opposite. Different values, overlapping skills, and the same blind spots you have.
“If you can’t find someone who fits, build alone, or find advisors or hire senior employees… even if it takes you longer to grow.
“Choose like your entire future depends on it. Because, I promise you, it does.”
Holt, who is also the CEO of FlightStory, replied: “What an adventure we are all on. Could not imagine climbing this mountain with anyone else. Every day I’m grateful we get to do this together.”
Brenton is also the chief revenue officer of FlightStory.