An important lesson about co-founder relationships I learned

They always say choosing the right co-founder is the most important step. This is true. But it's easier said than done.

Amongst all the excitement when coming up with a great idea, you sometimes (or at least I did) forget that crucial advice. Often times, you come up with an idea with someone else around - one may have contributed much more to the idea than the other. And you end up going with them as your co founder. In other instances, you come up with it yourself and approach a close friend to start the idea together. Both of these can work! Close friends are there because they are someone you gel with very well. That being said, sometimes it can be impulsive and maybe not the best direction - but it's salvageable! I know that because my co-founder and I did it.

I had just started college and was in a deep conversation with a friend I knew from before - but was not very close to. We bonded quickly and came up with a great idea in the 2nd month of school starting. We were excited, energized so yes - we were impulsive. We ended up being co-founders.

For about 8-9 months, there was slow progress. Working on the startup became a chore, I was unsatisfied with the level and amount of work being done by my co-founder and we disagreed and had differing viewpoints on most things. Most importantly, we did not clearly outline our skills and flaws and what our roles were specifically.

We were rookies we overlooked many of the steps that are supposedly required for startups to work.

It came to the point that I wanted to leave and take a break. We had invested a decent amount of money and saw little progress. My co-founder sat me down and we chatted for hours. It was the most productive conversation I've had in years. We were completely honest with each other - something we had difficulty doing. We shared what we were good at what we were bad at. We made compromises we previously did not want to make for the betterment of the startup. We learned about our personality types, what makes us angry, what we're scared of, what our insecurities are and what makes us motivated.

Since that day, things have never been the same. In the next year after that conversation, we secured our seed round funding and ultimately decided to suspend the startup to focus on finishing school. (There were logistical challenges that would've required us to stop school and be on-site).

To all of you wondering if you've chosen the right co-founder. Before making a decision - try this. Open up in an environment you both feel very comfortable. This has worked for me, it might work for you. Keep yourself motivated and surrounded by positivity! I'm going to end with this, and I'm sorry for the self promo but I thought this might be useful to a lot of people looking for motivation or just wants to know what other startups are doing. You can click here for a newsletter I send every weekday which sends you 3 newly funded startups to your inbox. Check it out if you think you might like it :)

Good luck to all you founders! You are all brave and inspiring!