So you're thinking of starting a business with one of your
very smart, very cool college friends. Maybe he's your
roommate, or perhaps you met her in a business class. It might even
be a group of your fraternity brothers or sorority sisters who all
want to start a business together. While it sounds like the perfect
kind of partnership, is going into business with a college buddy
(or buddies) really a good idea?
For the co-founders of Chili Willy's, a quick-serve Mexican
restaurant in Hamilton, New York, their friendship proved to be a
perfect recipe for entrepreneurship. Chris Nordsiek, Preston Burnes
and Matt Brown, all 21-year-old students at Colgate University in
Hamilton, became friends during their freshman year. The three
initially came up with the restaurant idea for a business plan
competition during their sophomore year. Because Nordsiek, Burnes
and Brown have different strengths and skills, going into business
together seemed natural for the friends. "For the three of us,
our strengths are very different," says Nordsiek. "We all
have a different perspective, and between the three of us, we can
[identify] any hole or problem [in the business]." Being in
the same fraternity for a full year before starting the business
also helped the team really get to know each other.
But partnering with your college friends isn't always a
smart idea. Two pitfalls of the strategy are ruining friendships
and giving friends with shaky credentials key positions in your
company. According to Graham Mitchell, director of the Program in
Entrepreneurship at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
"Clearly, there has to be a good sort of chemistry with people
on a personal level, and it helps if there's a natural division
of capabilities and talents."
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Working with someone on a class project is one way to get to
know a potential partner better; you'll get a good idea of his
or her strengths, weaknesses and ability to commit to a real-world
business. Choosing someone only because she's your friend
isn't wise, so always consider someone's knowledge and
business skills as honestly as possible.
Mitchell also suggests studying the partnership dynamics of
other successful entrepreneurs: "Students and young teams need
to experience that and be exposed to the ways teams work from a
theoretical point of view."
Learning to deal with conflict is key to making any partnership
work--especially if you're roommates in addition to being
co-founders, like Nordsiek and Burnes. "If two of us are
disagreeing about something, we'll bring in the third guy, and
he'll be the one to make the call or [arbitrate] what's
going on," says Nordsiek. "We're not going to stick
to our guns and be wrong. We're all rational human beings, and
if we sit down and discuss it, we can come up with a
solution." Putting ego aside when solving problems is
imperative. As Nordsiek says, "We put the success of the
restaurant before everything else."
Fine-tuning that communication style took the better part of a
year for the Chili Willy's team. But since opening their doors
in February 2005, the trio has clearly managed to make friendship
and entrepreneurship work hand in hand: First-year sales are
projected to hit $200,000.