A lot of entrepreneurs are faced with the question, do we need a cofounder? A partner can reduce your freedom to make decisions and in the worst case can run your business down to ground. But, if you see the history of startups almost all successful tech companies have had cofounders.

Most successful partnerships in business

1. Apple: Steve Jobs – Steve Wozniak
2. Microsoft: Bill Gates – Paul Allen
3. Google: Larry Page – Sergey Brin
4. Yahoo: Jerry Yang – David Filo
5. HP: Bill Hewlett – Dave Packard
6. Intel: Gordon Moore – Bob Noyce
7. Twitter: Evan Williams – Biz Stone
8. Ben & Jerry’s: Ben Cohen – Jerry Greenfield
9. eBay: Pierre Omidyar – Jeffrey Skoll
10. P&G: William Proctor – James Gamble

Advantages of having a cofounder

1. Validates your business idea: If you cannot convince even one person among your friends and ex-colleagues about your business idea, it might be time to get back to the drawing board and rethink about the idea. Because the chances are that it will be pretty hard to convince strangers – investors and customers – about your idea.
2. Brings diverse talents to the table: A cofounder who has complementary skills but sharing the same passion can help cover the weak points in your skill set. In tech startups one of the cofounders could focus on technology and other on marketing.
3. Speeds up the release: Having more hands could speed up the work and help you launch the business fast. A business that operate fast can greatly reduce the chances of death.
4. Helps you get funding: Most VCs and angels would avoid a business with just one founder. A company with just one founder has enormous risk and is solely reliant on the whims of the founder.
5. Saves you from monotony: Running a startup is a psychological roller-coaster. There will be a few ups and a lot of downs in the initial parts of the journey. Having a partner to bounce ideas and share the journey can help smoothen the ride and can greatly improve the odds of success.
6. Helps you with more contacts: Contacts are always important in a business and if you have 2 cofounders you can twice as many contacts and people who care about your business. More the contacts, more odds that one of them could become your first major customer.

Read more

• Top 10 partnerships in business
• 4 top mistakes to avoid
• Why you need a cofounder

Image from revolweb via Flickr