Finding a cofounder is difficult, especially for nontechnical solo founders building tech companies. The pandemic has made the task even harder. Hearing so many founders struggle with this has kept it top of mind for me. Here are a few resources I’ve recently heard founders mention when they describe how they found technical cofounders:

• AngelList – A community focused specifically on startups. There’s area place to post jobs. The site’s focus on startups should help in reaching people who want to work with an early-stage company.
• GitHub – A development platform that helps technical teams with collaboration, version control, and a host of other things. A community forum mostly counts developers as members.
• Slack – This is specific to Atlanta (kinda). There’s a workspace for the Atlanta tech community called "tech404." Many developers are in the workspace, and there’s a channel specifically for jobs and another for gigs. I’ve encountered people who are part of the workspace but don’t live in Atlanta. I assume these kinds of workspaces exist in other major cities or regions too.
• Network blast – I’ve heard of founders sending out descriptions of the type of experience they were looking for via emails or texts. Potential cofounders were often suggested by people the founder would least expect to be helpful. You never know who someone else knows.
• Virtual events – This is harder, but I’ve heard of founders attending startup or technical events that offer virtual networking. Events that use platforms like Hopin can give you the chance to network one-on-one with people you might not otherwise meet.

I’m always surprised by the creative ways people connect with cofounders. I thought it might be helpful to share some of these. I can’t say if these will work for everyone, but I do know one thing for sure. If you don’t take action, you won’t find a cofounder. Be action-oriented and creative and you just might end up finding a technical cofounder who complements you.

This problem won’t go away, so I’ll update and share this list periodically. I hope it’s helpful.

Today Salesforce announced the acquisition of Slack for $27.7 billion. The deal was leaked last week, but now Salesforce has officially confirmed it, along with the deal price. The sale is for cash and Salesforce stock. The is the biggest acquisition to date by Salesforce and a huge win for Slack employees and investors. A few quick thoughts on this deal:

• Hot market – There’s been lots of M&A activity in tech over the last few months. I’ve noticed it at a local level with private tech companies at various stages. This deal is at an enterprise level and involves two publicly traded companies.
• Majority cash – Notably, Slack is getting a considerable percentage of the purchase price in cash. It will receive stock too, but more cash.
• Growth strategy – Salesforce has acquired a number of companies over the years, including Tableau for over $15 billion last year and Mulesoft for over $6 billion in 2019. Growth through acquisition is a serious part of its strategy.
• Integration – I’m curious about how Salesforce will digest and integrate such a big deal. It clearly has experience integrating companies it acquires.
• Valuation – Slack didn’t benefit from the pandemic as much as some other publicly traded tech companies that facilitated working from home, such as Zoom. From a valuation perspective, Slack may have seemed less expensive in the current landscape.
• Public – Slack went public in the summer of 2019 and had a valuation of $24 billion after the first day of trading on the stock market. Today’s deal price is 15% higher. Slack was a public company for about a year and a half before this deal was announced.

I’m very familiar with both companies. I used Salesforce heavily in the past and currently use Slack every day to communicate. This is a huge deal, and it will be interesting to see if other big tech players announce acquisitions of their own.

Growth is top of mind for most entrepreneurs. When you’re growing quickly, expenses are often incurred ahead of revenue growth. Hiring, special projects, building a product . . . all these things happen before you see additional revenue from customers. For this and other reasons, a high-growth company may be unprofitable. You’ll often hear unprofitability described as investing in growth, and investors may give such a company an attractive valuation.

Here are a few things I’ve learned about growth over the years:

• Messiness – Chaos reigns when you’re growing rapidly. A company growing at a breakneck pace isn’t a well-oiled machine. I like to think of it as a land grab. When growth slows, hone the efficiency of your processes. But while the opportunity’s in front of you, grab as much land as you can as fast as you can.
• Valuation – If you’ve achieved product–market fit, investors will overlook losses for a high growth rate. One hundred percent or more annually—which means you’re doubling every year—is great. When growth is minimal or negative, the valuation will be affected and investors will ask lots of tough questions.
• Source – Understand what’s driving your growth and double down on it if you can. If you don’t know the origins of your growth, you could inadvertently make decisions that hinder it or be caught off guard when it slows down for reasons you don’t understand and haven’t planned for.
• Alignment – When growth is expected to slow or begins to slow, consider adjusting expenses. If you’re no longer getting an ROI on a spend, reduce the spend or transition the resources to something that could provide a higher ROI.
• Expectations – High-growth companies can be caught in a situation where they’re penalized by investors or the stock market if their growth rate slows even slightly. Managing external expectations can become a critical part of managing growth.
• Channel partners – Growth through channel partners is a fine strategy, but I’m a fan of most of your revenue deriving from a direct relationship with customers. You’ll better understand your customers’ needs and a change in a third party’s priorities won’t be as likely to affect your growth.

All entrepreneurs aim for growth, but we’re not always prepared to manage it. These points are just a few things I’ve learned along the way that I hope will help as you think about growth.

Today I had a good chat with a friend about valuations of tech companies. A lot of capital has been raised in Atlanta and the Southeast over the last six months. I’ve read about acquisitions, venture capital rounds, and private equity recapitalizations. Our conversation began with private companies and moved to public companies. Both have seen valuations increase rapidly this year.

One of the points I made was the difference between private and public liquidity. Public company stock shares tend to be very liquid. They can be bought and sold in a matter of minutes. The liquid nature of the stock market means that market capitalization (i.e., valuation) of a company is always—for the most part—known and agreed to by a large pool of people (i.e., the market). The market cap reflects all known information about a company and the macro environment at any given time. A large pool of people reach consensus every day.

Private company ownership usually isn’t as liquid. Most owners can’t decide to sell private company shares and complete the transaction in the next few minutes. It’s more of a process. Parties interested in ownership in the company usually take time to become familiar with the business’s performance and other factors they deem important. Then they agree on a valuation with the owner and a transaction is completed. The business’s performance or the macro environment could change after the transaction, but the valuation of the company is usually pegged at the most recent transaction. And the valuation is usually agreed to by a small number of people.

I don’t have an opinion on the current state of tech valuations. I do think that the difference in the liquidity of private and public tech companies affects their valuations. I view one is a snapshot in time and the other as a daily consensus that incorporates the latest information.

There are lots of other differences between private and public tech companies that I won’t get into. I’m curious to see how valuations of both trend, and I’ll be watching them closely.

Today marks the end of my thirty-seventh week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week thirty-seven:

• Thanksgiving – It was great to have time off. This year has been very unusual and Thanksgiving was no exception.
• Southeast ecosystem – I connected virtually with a venture capital fund and an accelerator this week. Both conversations were enlightening. I’m surprised there’s so much activity I’m unaware of. All signs are that the region is headed in the right direction.
• Fundraising activity –There’s been a lot of fundraising activity in Atlanta in the last few months. Before year-end we’ll see a few more deals. Acquisitions, private equity recaps, venture capital fundraising . . . I’m happy for these founders and their teams. We’re in uncertain times, yet investors are bullish on ownership in private tech companies. I’m curious about what the future holds.

Week thirty-seven was low key. The holiday was much needed. I’m glad I got some downtime and could reflect on the things I’m thankful for. Before I know it, Christmas will be here.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

Over the last few months I’ve been talking with a founder about a problem I’ve personally experienced. He’s mentioned his solution to this problem many times, and it made me curious. I had some time today and decided to dig in. The founder did a really good job of building an MVP. The product works just well enough to solve the problem—it isn’t completely built out. It requires the user to complete way more steps than is ideal. Despite this and other hurdles, the founder is on to something, and his stats prove it.

He’s been using this MVP to get feedback from customers. He then makes changes based on the feedback. He’s trying to solve the problem in a way that customers see value in. In a matter of months, he’s managed to convince a few hundred customers to pay for his MVP. These are early adopters, of course, but they demonstrate that people see value in the solution he’s created. If his product is improved significantly and some marketing muscle is applied, he could build a massive company.

This founder has done a great job of staying focused on solving his customer’s problem—as opposed to perfecting the solution he thinks they want.

Founders should be careful to not put too much time into over-engineering a solution before putting it in the hands of users. The goal is to solve the customer’s problem in the way the customer wants it solved. The only way to truly know if you’re doing that is to let them test your solution. Once your solution resonates with them, you can spend time perfecting it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a safe and healthy holiday!

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a holiday that’s special to me. When I decided to quit corporate America and start a company, I broke the news to my parents over a Thanksgiving holiday. In the early years, the holiday was an opportunity for me to make progress on big projects. Eventually, though, it dawned on me what a terrible way of doing things that was, and I began enjoying the day with people I loved.

Unplugging was something I struggled with for a long time. I was worried about failing, so work issues were always racing through my mind. I eventually realized there weren’t many weekdays when I could mentally disconnect and learned to set work aside when they came around. Thanksgiving was definitely one of those days. I also found it to be a great time to reflect and give thanks for everything that had gone right that year.

Have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy your downtime with people you care about!

I was talking with an early entrepreneur, who asked a great question. “What’s the most meaningful thing you gained from your journey that you least expected?” Now, I admit . . . I was totally stumped. I needed time to answer. I wanted to think about it so I could give an authentic response. Toward the end of our conversation, it came to me: friends who understand me and experienced the struggle too.

Being an entrepreneur is hard. You’re trying to do the impossible with limited resources. You’re pushing yourself and your team to the limit. It’s not something that most people understand or can relate to. I had a great support system of friends and family before I founded my company. I was able to talk with them about most things in my life. But when I became a founder, that changed. I was experiencing things they hadn’t and that they couldn’t relate to. After a while, I steered conversations with them away from work. My company was an outsized part of my life, so I found myself on an island without anyone to talk to who could relate.

I eventually connected with other entrepreneurs at a similar stage and this changed. All of a sudden, I could talk to people who got it. They were problem solvers facing the same challenges I was, and they had crazy visions that others in their life couldn’t understand. Over the years, those peers became wonderful friends. The friendship dynamics are hard to explain, but because we supported each other during some of our toughest times, the bonds are tight.

When I decided to start my company, I wanted it to be a success and I wanted to enjoy everything that came with it. I achieved success, but the thing that stands out more than that are the friendships I formed with other entrepreneurs. We come from different backgrounds, but we bonded over our shared desire to solve tough problems by building amazing companies. Companies can be bought and sold, but true friendships like these are invaluable.

If you’re looking to do something great (even if it’s not entrepreneurship), consider connecting with others who are traveling a similar road. No matter how great your accomplishments, the friendships you’ll build along the way will be priceless.

Vision is a popular topic in startup communities. But what is vision? How do you know if you have it? In my opinion, your vision is where you plan to go. I think of it as defining your future destination. You know you have a vision when you can describe it and others easily “get it” and can imagine the destination. They get excited about it and all the possibilities that come with it.

Trying to do something great is hard. You’ll get told no. You’ll hear that your idea is stupid. You may even be laughed at. At times you’ll face a seemingly never-ending barrage of hurdles, and some days nothing will go right. These are the days when vision matters the most. Without a vision, you may give into the pain and pick an easier path to a destination that looks like success. But if you know where you want to be and have conviction, your vision will help you navigate tough times. That clear vision helps you choose not the easy path but the path that aligns with where you want to be. That vision is what motivates your team to travel that difficult path with you. That vision is your compass and your confidence when the chips are stacked against you. When times are good, you may get away with not having a vision. But when times are hard, not having a vision can be the kiss of death.

If you’re trying to do something great, consider taking the time to develop your vision. It can be the difference between success and failure!