A Guide to Picking Partners Who Are Provocative
By Poornima Vijayshanker We all know the common adage ‘no man is an island’. This applies to our professional lives as well as our …
By Poornima Vijayshanker
We all know the common adage ‘no man is an island’. This applies to our professional lives as well as our personal ones. The consequences of picking partners for any project can hinge on the side of progress or peril!
Picking partners is indeed a difficult decision – you want someone you can rely on during the best and worst of times, who complements you well, and who can also nudge you when you know you need it. Too often, we’re told who we should and shouldn’t partner with (loved ones or family members are often not recommended), but sometimes it just comes down to who we know best.
Take, for example, the husband and wife team of a new startup called ShareSomeStyle. The founders are Diane Loviglio and Gilman (Gil) Tolle. Their goal is to make you feel more confident by pairing you up with a stylist.
I met Diane a little over a year ago, when she was just getting started and reached out to ask me what my take on the service was. As someone who loves the show What NOT to Wear, I thought it was a much-needed service, especially for working professionals. I was reunited with Diane and Gil recently, when they were accepted to participate in the 500 Startups accelerator program, where I’m an EIR (entrepreneur-in-residence). I was thrilled to have them as my advisees.
Since then, I’ve had deeper interactions with these two, and I’ve learned some of the secrets of how they make it work:
Clear ownership areas. Diane is the CEO while Gil is the CTO. Initially, they both worked on the product together. Diane recently has taken on more projects related to fundraising, pursuing partnerships, and growing the business, while Gil continues to stay focused on the technology side of the business.
Be OK with a little opposition. Just because you’re partners doesn’t mean that you can’t push each other a little bit and that conflicts won’t come up. It boils down to how you approach each other. I’ve noticed that Diane and Gil are pretty good about communicating what is and isn’t working, not as an indictment on one another, but in order to bring up issues. They then focus on solving the problem.
Offer support when it’s needed. During the accelerator, Diane was pregnant and concerned that she might have her baby on a day that she needed to be pitching investors. She worked with Gil and prepped him to do the pitch as well, and wouldn’t you know it – they had their baby girl Joscelin Blake Tolle two days before their first big demo day!
Ultimately, you want to partner with someone to help you make progress on a project. Picking partners is your decision. There may be some who judge your choice in a partner, especially if they’ve had a bad experience with it themselves – but if you’ve figured out a way to make it work, then their judgements don’t really matter.
Now I want to know: have you ever thought about partnering with someone but were concerned about what others might think? Or have you had a really positive experience partnering with someone you initially weren’t sure about?
