🚀 365 Days of Stories: Day 37 – A Co-Founder Must Share Your Hunger

After my first attempt at finding a co-founder didn’t work out, we parted ways. But a month later, we reconnected.

Over lunch, we reflected on what went wrong. He admitted: “I wasn’t fully convinced about our first business idea—that’s why I was just following your lead.”

That made sense. So, we decided to try again.

This time, we set some ground rules: ✅ We would pick an idea that excited both of us. ✅ We would both bring relevant skills to the table.

🌾 The New Business Idea: Fixing Price Fluctuations for Farmers One major problem we saw: farmers suffer from unpredictable price fluctuations. For example, tomato prices can swing drastically due to supply-demand gaps.

We believed we could solve this by creating predictability in demand to ensure stable prices for farmers.

We got to work.

For weeks, we brainstormed, researched, and refined our approach.

Then, we attended a Millets Expo in Bangalore, eager to validate our idea with farmers and industry experts.

That’s when reality hit us: 💡 We had zero domain knowledge.

Without deep industry expertise, we knew this wasn’t a problem we could solve effectively.

⚡ The Bigger Issue: Different Speeds, Different Goals At this point, I was ready to pivot again and explore new opportunities.

But I noticed a pattern: 👉 I was driven to move fast, iterate, and find the next opportunity. 👉 He was content to take things slow and see where it goes.

I realized we were running at two different speeds.

So, I had an honest conversation with him. I said: “I don’t think we’re aligned in how we want to build a business.” He agreed: “Yeah, I’m looking for a more balanced life right now.”

We parted ways again—this time, with mutual understanding.

🏆 Lesson #2: A Co-Founder Must Match Your Energy and Ambition ❌ A co-founder should not just be a good friend or ex-colleague. ✅ A co-founder should have the same level of hunger, urgency, and vision as you do. ❌ Don’t look for a co-founder just because the journey is lonely.

Finding the right co-founder is harder than it looks. I still don’t know the perfect way to do it.

How did you find (or struggle to find) the right co-founder? Drop your thoughts below! 👇

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