Comments on: Is your partner worth $5 million?

By: The Myth of Control …- 7million7years

The Myth of Control …- 7million7years — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:30:02 +0000

[...] believe (and, have stated) – that you need to have a VERY good reason to give ANY equity away (for reasons that I [...]

By: The power of bonuses …- 7million7years

The power of bonuses …- 7million7years — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:54:40 +0000

[...] Having no partners is better than having partners [AJC: I covered my reasoning in this post and in this follow-up [...]

By: Now, that’s hard to bottle!- 7million7years

Now, that’s hard to bottle!- 7million7years — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:49:04 +0000

[...] a couple of posts, I posed the question: is your partner worth $5 [...]

By: What’s the big idea? « How to Make 7 Million in 7 Years™

What’s the big idea? « How to Make 7 Million in 7 Years™ — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:58:45 +0000

[...] instance, my recent post about partnerships seemed to be about deciding whether one partner can double the value of your [...]

By: Adrian

Adrian — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:03:39 +0000

@ Jason – Unfortunately, an all-too-common story; I have friends who invited a partner in. He promised the world and seemed “so generous”; not even a few weeks – maybe a month – later and they are already regretting their decision to invite him into the business: Jekyll has turned to Hyde

@ Money Blog – As Jason and my story shows, maybe there are ‘intangibles’ on both sides of the partnership ledger?

The bottom line: weigh up the pro’s & con’s of any partnership decision VERY carefully – perhaps with the aid of an impartial third party – to sort the rational wheat from the emotional chaff

By: Jason Dragon

Jason Dragon — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:23:16 +0000

Well my problem is that I got stuck with a business partner. He started off as a lender. Then as we needed more and more capital to prop up parts of the business that were losing money he was there. Then the industry we were in fell apart. We did things better than the rest so we lasted longer, but during this time he kept dumping cash in the business. Then the business started to die and we both focused on other things. Now his cash is gone, and I am rebuilding the business with almost no effort for him but he wants half of my efforts. I also get half of his efforts on the things he is working on. But really he is not worth the price. So I have restructured it. I get paid a salary and then we split half of what is left after that, works for now, but when the company gets huge I don’t know where we will stand.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:02:54 +0000

@ Neil – As Scott picked up, I was talking about Business Partners. But now that you mention it, my Life Partner (i.e. wife) was my ‘business enabler’ and without her we would never have succeeded in business or investing … on the investing side, primarily RE because she is not QUITE so supportive on stock investing

@ myjourneytomillions – … a partner as a ‘hedging strategy’ hmmmm I think that there are other – less costly – ways to reduce business risks, but if you partner brings skills that you don’t have you may decide that the 50% ‘hit’ is worth it?

By: myjourneytomillions

myjourneytomillions — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:07:09 +0000

As you know AJC I am a huge fan of this site, and your message, but most of your posts are positive as the situation worked out for you (luckily for us readers).

That being said, but one about the huge benefit of hedging your bet on a business. If you venture costs 30K, 60K, 100K, or even a million. What about the benefit of only losing half if it doesn’t work out?

Not sure where I stand on it, but just some thoughts…

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:49:00 +0000

@Scott

Yep, but I just saw an interesting parallel with life partners after reading your comment.

Back in the early 90s I was in Grad school working on start-up, and my partners ended up getting comfortable jobs (they weren’t in school). As a result, their commitment to the startup faded and with it went the company. I didn’t have their hardware skills, and since I didn’t have a job, I couldn’t go on alone.

All I have left from those days are memories and a few lessons learned. Hmmm…. and I repeated that a few more times to really learn it.

I’m not completely against partnerships if that partner brings something to the table that you need, but most of my experience was on non-profit/hobby ventures. However, I’m really only going to so that for a side business.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:36:36 +0000

I was actually referring to a ‘business’ partner, not a life partner, but you most certainly have to make sure that your life or relationship partner is on board with you financially as well