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A solo entrepreneur’s journey is a lonely one — everything is on you, there’s nobody to bounce ideas off of, and rough waters demand an incredible personal drive to keep going. That’s why finding a business partner for your new venture is generally considered to be a smart move to minimize risks and distribute challenges. Two heads are better than one, right?
Finding a partner, however, is easier said than done.
Where to find someone who has complementary skills, the willingness to undertake the risks and responsibilities of a nascent business, and — perhaps most importantly — the integrity and loyalty necessary for purposeful collaboration? For some, the initial response is to look close to home, to someone you already share a strong bond with and trust deeply, namely, a childhood friend.
That’s what I did. I started a business with my friend Rihards, whom I’ve known since we were in primary school. We sold our first business for six figures, and now we run Supliful, a consumer packaged goods startup. Would I want to do it with anyone else? No. But has it always been smooth sailing? Also no.
From my 15+ years of experience running a business with a childhood friend, here are three pros and the biggest con.
Three pros of starting a business with a childhood friend
Typically, a childhood friend is someone you know intimately, and vice versa. This brings several benefits to a business partnership.
1. Realistic expectations and synergy
You know what to expect. You know each other’s strong suits, weaknesses, limits, talents and motivations. Early on, enlisting a friend is likely to have shortcomings from a business perspective. However, knowing what these might be allows you to tackle them effectively.
While an external partner may sometimes offer more direct immediate benefits in the shape of hard skills and experience, it’s harder to gauge the things they lack, potentially causing an unwelcome surprise further down the line. With them, it may take longer to develop synergy and get on the same page.
Of course, it will take time to find the perfect synergy with a childhood friend, too. That said, the foundation should already be there, helping avoid growing pains. For first-time entrepreneurs specifically, there will be a lot of learning, pivoting and reorganizing, and you need someone flexible on your team who’s willing to adapt, change roles, and react to new developments. This is, in my experience, easier to make a reality with an equal, i.e., a friend, compared to someone who’s very specific about what they bring to the table, i.e., an external partner.
Related: 5 Priceless Lessons For First-Time Entrepreneurs
2. Easy, candid communication
Every entrepreneur encounters adversity. Dealing with it in the most effective way possible is critical to moving forward. For this, in my experience, honest communication is key.
Honest communication, however, isn’t something you can take for granted. The business world, in general, and the startup scene, in particular, have a very specific song and dance, where failures are painted as learning experiences, challenges are termed opportunities, and setbacks are just experiments.
Sure, but sometimes, a failure is just that — a failure. And the best way to overcome it is brutal honesty. This is easier with a friend as a business partner than with some other party. You can say things to each other that may be more difficult to say to someone else, which, in turn, allows you to skip the charades and dive straight into problem resolution.
This freedom and ease of communication (and lack of pretense) extend further to every facet of the business and help keep things both grounded in reality and moving swiftly.
3. You’re on the same team
Never underestimate loyalty in business. Knowing that you’re in it together and have each other’s backs has gotten us through thick and thin—for example, having someone to confide in without worrying about it being used against you or fully trusting each other to independently make decisions to benefit the company at large.
With a childhood friend, there’s a level of trust from the get-go that would take years, if not decades, to develop with an external partner.
Related: I Co-Founded a Company With My Best Friend, and 10 Years Later Our Partnership Is Stronger Than Ever
The biggest con of starting a business with a childhood friend
As anyone who has ever launched a business with a friend will tell you, one of the biggest downsides is that it will impact your friendship. In one sense, it’s likely to make it stronger than ever. But it will also completely change the dynamic — something not everybody may be ready for.
Business challenges, financial pressures and differing visions can test the friendship in ways you might not anticipate. Disagreements can become personal, and personal issues can seep into business decisions, no matter how synergized, aligned, or close you may be.
Of course, in business, the highs are really high, and few feelings match the elation of celebrating a big success with a person who is a big part of your life. But the lows are really low, and, in such cases, the blatant honesty that’s otherwise a big positive may come back to bite you when everyone’s down in the dumps and you’re speaking your mind to each other no-holds-barred.
At the end of the day, there’s a real risk that partnership takes the upper hand over friendship. The reality is that both must be nurtured. Striking a balance may be difficult, but there’s nobody better positioned to do it than you and your childhood friend.
