Co-founder Assesment

These past few weeks of discussion and readings for the course have made me realize the importance of having great talent to an organization. Having read research on the importance of culture and values set at the start, my co-founder and I sat down and discussed details about our work relationship. Three questions were of specific interest to us at this stage: Why do you want to work together? What is the exit strategy in case a partner decides to leave? How do we envision the growth of this partnership?

Given that Shirin and I will be working in separate countries, we will not be involved in day to day activities of each others work. Essentially our idea and business model is shared but both of us are responsible for our own business. The  financial, administrative and logistical details can be shared only for learning purposes. We agreed that both the partners will be entirely independent and are not answerable to each other or indulge in any profit sharing.

With regards to an exit strategy, we agreed that neither partner is financially obligated to the other if they decide to exit the business. There are is no royalty to the brand name or idea so in case only one partner wants to continue, the other will not be responsible or liable in any way.

While our business will function as a franchise model with each of us responsible for our region, we want to work together to enhance our learning. Both of us are passionate about serving impoverished communities and bridging social/income inequalities. However, our academic and cultural backgrounds differ which adds to diversity in the thought process and skill set. We are both interested in rural development and enjoy working with young people. Our leanings are translatable because India and Pakistan have developmental challenges related to governance, socio-cultural factors and our strategies to address these barriers can be similar. Hence our social commitment is what makes us well-positioned to work with each other and embrace this collaborative learning opportunity.