Written in collaboration with SISTAFUND, a European investment fund supporting startups founded by women entrepreneurs and gender-balanced teams.
What is it about?
Why is it important?
"The number one cause of premature death for a startup is the implosion of the founding team."
— Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator and CEO of OpenAI.
Studies show that the long-term success of a business venture depends in the beginning more on its founding team than on its product.
Three actions to take right now
1️⃣ Get to know each other personally: What are your expectations? Your values? The aim of the project? Why are you looking for a co-founder right now?
2️⃣ Begin the search for potential co-founders
- Consider your close circle: the founding team is most likely to emerge from among those with whom you have already collaborated
- Step out of your comfort zone: join entrepreneur communities to meet new people and to seek complementary profiles
- Engage with incubation programs such as Entrepreneur First and Antler that integrate team formation in their support.
→ Focus on gender diversity:
- Teams with mixed founders have 1.4 times more chances of getting funded (3rd edition of the SISTA x BCG Barometer, March 2022)
- Company benefits increase as the percentage of women in the workforce rises, up to 50%. Beyong 50%, the relationship between benefits and the percentage of women remains stable ( Study "The impact of gender diversity on the performance of business teams, Management Science, 2013)
At SISTAFUND, we only invest in startups founded or co-founded by women. In the latter case, we ensure that at least 30% of the shares belong to one or more women. Studies show that a numerical minority can only express itself effectively and autonomously in a group when it reaches a proportion of 30% (e.g. University of Pennsylvania, Damon Centola, study 2018). For us, it is a fundamental, fair, and balanced element.
Natacha Brami, VC Associate @ SISTAFUND
Startups founded or co-founded by women are 2.5 times more profitable investments than others (they return 78 cents for every dollar invested compared with 31 cents for startups founded solely by men). — Natacha Brami
3️⃣ Clarify expectations from the start: Are your values aligned? Do you see the project's ambition the same way? How do you work?
→ Write a shareholder agreement anticipating the worst-case scenarios, in order to prevent them from happening (see document: Defining the relationship between co-founders).
→ Consider the distribution of shares; this which may not be the most pleasant exercise, but is necessary to motivate and incentivize teams.
📚 For further reading
🛠️ Founder Dating Playbook
📝 Eight questions to discuss with potential future associates (Maddyness)
📺 Startup Partnership: Testing and Integrating a New Partner (documentary by Pylote startup)
📖 Studies with a focus on gender diversity
✍️ Contributors to this document
SISTAFUND is a new generation of venture capital funders backing exceptional female founders and gender-balanced teams.
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