Thirteen Questions to Ask Each Other Before Becoming Business Partners

To my mind, what matters isn’t really the result — a complete set of answers — but the willingness to calmly talk through the sharpest scenarios, the ones that seem unlikely at first glance, without ego, calmly and pragmatically.

— In detail, how do you see the company, and your role in it, ten years from now?

— What do you expect from each other, as a person and as a professional? How many hours will each partner give the company? Where will the work happen (office / remote)?

— On which questions does the final say belong to whom?

— How will the partners report to one another?

— What is the procedure and what are the limits on selling or transferring a partner’s stake?

— What are your moral guideposts in business — what’s acceptable to you, and what’s taboo? Tax optimization, kickbacks, black PR, and so on…

— What do you want the money for? What happens in the event of staggering success?

— Is this business for keeps, or built to sell?

— If something goes wrong, what does the shutdown look like, and how do we split whatever assets are left?

— Do the partners have any significant personal circumstances worth knowing about: illnesses, debts, legal trouble, and the like?

— For what actions can a partner be unilaterally removed from the partnership?

— What’s the protocol if a partner loses interest in the company? What if he stops bringing value, or, for physical reasons, can no longer perform his function (disability, say)?

— What’s the order of succession for a stake if a partner dies? Will the heirs have the right to run the company?

What counts as a warning bell? Two of them, above all:

— your body’s reaction to a partner’s answer, when on an intuitive, physical level you feel an inner discomfort, a disagreement, and/or a catch;

— answers along the lines of: “Why discuss this now? We’ll talk it through when we actually run into it! Surely we’ll find common ground?!”

Oh, and — please — discuss vesting^[1]!

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1. Vesting — the process of gradually earning the right to a stake in the company, tied to time or to meeting certain conditions. ↩︎