Mark Suster Tells Founders To Be Authentic, Hire Co-Founders, And Give Before Taking

Editor?s note:?Derek?Andersen?is the founder of?Startup Grind, a 45-city community in 20-countries, uniting the global startup world together through educating, inspiring, and connecting entrepreneurs. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview?Upfront Ventures‘ (previously GRP Partners)?Mark Suster in Los Angeles. While the firm has been in operation since 1996, they?recently announced?a new $200 million fund. Mark is one of those VCs that is easy for most entrepreneurs to relate to because of his founder background, selling his last company to Salesforce and others before that. Hire A Co-Founder One of his essays that is particularly insightful is?The Co-Founder Mythology.?In it Mark paints a different perspective on the co-founder relationship then most have dreamed up. For every Sergey and Larry that starts in the garage and grinds to IPO, there are dozens more that never make it. Often co-founders barely know each other. Maybe they met at a hackathon, a networking event, or maybe they were?fraternity brothers. But as time goes on people change. “You started a journey and you think you?re similar, and when things are going incredibly well it is no big deal,” Mark said during our?full interview?at Cross Campus in Santa Monica. “When you hit tough times is where you find out what your partner is really made of.? And if you?re 50/50 founders and you don?t have the same risk tolerance, someone wants an exit, or the other person doesn?t. Or someone gets a dog, gets a wife, has a kid, loses interest, starts drinking too much. ?Someone loses confidence.? Someone gets depressed.?Even people who have known each other since high school get like this, and it just becomes unresolvable if you?re joint co-founders.” But these aren’t the sexy stories that make for legendary startup tales. “Nobody ever talks about that because people don?t want to talk publicly about these failures, and I?d say it?s more often the rule than the exception.? So what I like to tell people is, if you’re confident then hire your cofounders. Or be the cofounder that gets hired.? But hire your cofounders if you?re confident.” So why are we as entrepreneurs so eager to sign people up to long-term relationships after only a few meetings or limited stress testing? Mark says, “I really believe that most entrepreneurs ? people who want to do it ? they are only willing to do it if they have two other people lined up

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