This is a great post. I am starting a company with a good friend of mine, and it's amazing how much time it takes to make sure we're both going down the same path, not just code-wise, but also in terms of marketing, pricing, hell, even the logo has required a lot of back-and-forth.
The one thing that I can add to this, is that make sure you go into business with somebody you can both win and lose an argument with. Plans change, markets change, and most importantly, people working together need to compromise. I'm lucky, in that my co-founder is a really reasonable guy -- hopefully he'd say the same about me.
To borrow a concept from PG: Make sure neither partner looks at the business as part of their identity.
Having done decently-sized projects (that never made money) on my own, I can definitely testify that the two-man-route is much, much harder.
The one thing that I can add to this, is that make sure you go into business with somebody you can both win and lose an argument with. Plans change, markets change, and most importantly, people working together need to compromise. I'm lucky, in that my co-founder is a really reasonable guy -- hopefully he'd say the same about me.
To borrow a concept from PG: Make sure neither partner looks at the business as part of their identity.
Having done decently-sized projects (that never made money) on my own, I can definitely testify that the two-man-route is much, much harder.