Partnerships and teamwork; yay or yay?

In one of the previous articles, I noticed a comment which I reckon to be very insightful and would help a lot of tech entrepreneurs if implemented properly: Teamwork! I know that life has somehow taught us to be distrusting and all (through experience or otherwise), but I think that if we keep cultivating this mentality, paranoid small time achievers is all we will ever be.

Or maybe it’s not about trust, it’s more of an ego issue? Whatever it is, it has to go away! So below I’ve listed 5 simple (yes tech people, simple exists) reasons why we should actually consider partnerships.

1. Broadens scope of knowledge

News flash: no matter how much of a genius you are, you cannot know everything! You might think you have the best idea in the world, but if you remain solo, you are at a risk of becoming monotonous. Besides, fact is: everything is subject to improvement and a second person might just help bring that to your idea. Partners can help us expand our startups not only by bringing in a fresh perspective to the idea, but by even enabling better execution. Remember, partnerships do not always have to be permanent, but you can find project-specific partners. And by the way, I am not limiting these to techy partnerships only, but some projects would need other expertise such as marketing, sales or industry specific knowledge like a motor mechanic.

 

2. Lessens labour and improves on efficiency

No matter how hardworking you are (or, especially if you are), you are going to burn out at some point. Therefore, if there’s a way to avoid this, take it! There’s a famous saying that goes “two is better than one” and I concur. When the task is shared, each has slightly (or wayyy) less to do; and logically, less is often better managed than more, thus efficiency. Also being able to focus only at what you’re good at means you are going to get even better at it, ultimately being a Ninja at your craft.

 

3. Cheaper

Of course, it’s a 10 divided by 2 vs. 10 divided by 5 type of situation. Some projects remain at idea stage or at small scale simply because they are quite expensive to do a full research on and/or implement. But then my question is, would you rather remain at small scale (or at zero for that matter) simply because of paranoia (which is sometimes even based on unsubstantiated claims) or some inflated ego??? Is it really worth it?

 

4. Gives weight to the startup

On one of the techcon discussions at the techfest, Dumisani Nyoni (Senior Strategy Advisor of ORAP) kept emphasising on the ziqoqe Ziqoqe is a Ndebele word that simply means gather yourselves. He was basically urging entrepreneurs that before approaching bigger entities or more specifically the government with an idea or request, they’d need to first find more people rallying for the same cause as this could significantly increase their chances of being taken seriously. So yea, there is power in numbers!

 

5. Saves on time

The concept of a leaking bucket can be used to explain this point. No matter how full a bucket is, if there is a hole or crack, water will flow out until the bucket is completely empty (well for as long as it is not being refilled of course). In essence, this concept explains that ‘small’ matters. Let me bring this home: say you (when alone) need an extra 30 minutes to complete the same task being done by two people, 30 minutes seems like nothing until it starts accumulating. Multiply these 30 minutes by the number of your working days per year, convert that to dollars and you’ll see how much loss you can incur unaware.

By the way, this article is not saying go out and look for partnerships immediately, it’s just an invitation for you to actually start thinking about it. If you then decide to be for partnerships, you will still need to sign contracts and NDAs etc. But most importantly, be wise in choosing who you then get into bed with.