This is a question I get frequently.  How do you pick a partner to start a company with, should you work with friends, how do you build a team?

I’m a big proponent of starting a company with a friend.  There are certainly risks, but the benefits are far greater.  When you work with a friend you are getting a known quantity who is likely to be as committed to the project as you are.  Because you know this person well, you will be able to know in advance if you have similar or compatible work styles, if your skill sets are complimentary, and how you handle disagreements.  In addition starting a new company is both a lot of fun and a lot of work and by definition you’ll end up spending a lot of time with your co-founders, so you might as well work with friends that you already enjoy spending time with.

The risk of working with a friend is the potential damage to the relationship if things go wrong.  I think this can mostly be avoided by communicating as much as possible, setting expectations up front, and always assuming good will intended (which is easier with friends to be sure).  One frequent problem between founders is the split of equity/ownership in your company.  Make sure that very early in the process you discuss what percentage of the company each of you owns and write it down.  It can be adjusted based on who’s idea it was, who took the risk of quitting their job, who contributed cash or other assets, etc., but the important thing is to agree.

As for team building, there are potentially two aspects to this.  One is around recruiting and how do you find the right people to help you out.  At first this is simply a matter of working your professional and academic social networks.  Sometimes resources like Linked In work well, but early on, it’s important to work your personal contacts.  As time goes on, you’ll probably move to job board postings.

The next aspect of team building is focused on working with the people you have already hired to ensure you have a healthy and productive working environment.  Some people pooh-pooh some of the softer sides of team development, but I think it is very important to take the time to build cohesion in your team through work activities, social activities, and team building exercises.  Take the group bowling, get out of the office and go on a hike, do exercises or play games that require cooperation to win.