I thought the advice given by Andrew Frame in a recent podcast was awesome (link)

He speaks on hiring those early executives, and says to design a team that scales you have to find people who have worked in big companies, and small, have had big successes and big failures… his reasons why illuminating. Worth a listen (the whole series is. it’s pretty awesome, if you don’t know it.)}

Another couple of lessons learnt:

• Life changes: if one of the co-founders decides to change from working part-time to full time on the project, and the other doesn’t it leads to conflict.
• Business strategy: decide on when you want to launch. No enhancements until the first customer signs, and not get into the loop of enhancing product everytime a prospect gives you any feedback…
• Strengths: if co-founder has a set of skills in say operations for the last decade, its unlikely for him/her to appreciate marketing or sales (not just generically, but the process and tactics). Careful when you assign responsibility… ensure they align with the co-founder’s and your strengths.

Remember – time’s ticking!}