Just as living life takes two people, doing a startup I found is no different.   I've researched and found out there is a phenomenon happening with startups... it takes two as well!!    We're talking about people who are more than capable of doing it themselves found out it's easier certainly but almost necessary to have a partner.

I too ran into this problem.   I am a jack of all trade mastering none of course, capable of doing it all by myself and for some things, I have.   But I have this urge to have a sounding board, a partner who can think, act, execute as if they were my clone.    Or better, a compliment of skillsets but with core foundation and values mostly same.

Here is a quick list of founder and  co-founder of some of the most popular companies:

Google with Brin and Page,
Yahoo with Yang and Filo,
Microsoft with Bill G and Paul Allen ,
eBay with Pierre Omidyar and  Jeff Skoll,
YouTube with Hurley and  Chen,
Skype Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis,
Paypal's David O'Sacks and Max Levchin
Apple's Jobs and Woz,
HP's Hewlett and Packard,
Sun's Scott McNealy, Vinod Khosla, Andy Bechtolsheim and Bill Joy
Oracle's Larry Ellison and Bruce Scott,
Adobe's Charles Geschke and John Warnock,
Cisco's Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner,
BEA's Bill Coleman, Ed Scott and Alfred Chuang,
EMC's Richard Egan and Roger Marino,
CNET Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie,
Flickr's Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield
AOL     : Steve Case, Marc Seriff and Jim Kimsey
Hotmail : Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith
StyleMob: Sasha Cagen & Adam Souzis
ScribbleLive : Michael De Monte and Jonathan Keebler
Club Penguin: Lance Priebe & Lane Merrifield
Facebook : Mark Zuckerberg & Dustin Moskovitz

I'm sure this list can be 100x longer but inevitably, we all need someone we can trust, someone we can count on and someone who has your back.   Most of not all of the above list of people found each other at very early stages in their lives.  Matter of fact, before they even came to consider to do a startup. 

The partnership and ultimately the friendship bond between the founders were made before they "consummated" it by signing the dotted line of the Startup contract.   Kinda like best marriages are marriages that were friendship before becoming married.

Where would Tom Hank's character be in the movie "Castaway" be if if wasn't for that "Wilson" the volleyball providing that partnership?

Lonely founder,
-QuasiPreneur

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