Ep 1.3 • Is Four Co-Founders Too Many? | Interview with Tonic.ai

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Ian Coe, Karl Hanson, Andrew Colombi & Adam Kamor are co-founders of Tonic.ai.

Meet Ian, Karl, Andrew, and Adam, who came together in 2018 to co-found Tonic. Their goal? To revolutionize how engineering teams create synthetic yet meaningful test datasets. Speaking of data - as many in the startup world know, it's rare to find founding teams with more than three members. Which brings us to a common question: How many co-founders is too many?

Let’s crunch the numbers… a recent analysis from TechCrunch revealed that less than 7% of companies raising over $10 million had four or more co-founders.

Against all odds, Tonic’s four person founding team has raised over $47 million dollars from leading investors like Insight Partners, GGV Capital, and Bloomberg Beta. Join us as we uncover the secrets behind their success and see for ourselves how many co-founders are too many?

How did they do it? Listen to their team story to learn how they overcame the odds and come to your own conclusion on how many co-founders is too many.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• The Requirement of Trust and Commitment in the Team
• An Honest Discussion on Titles and Roles in the Founding Team
• Fundraising & Investor Relations with a Large, Remote Founding Team
• Infusing Humor and Levity into the Company Culture
• Shared Decision Making in the Founding Team
• Advice for New Founding Teams

Some takeaways:

1. Don’t get stuck on titles - they’re merely a way of communicating to the external world in the early stages. Instead, be willing to flex and take on whatever the company needs.

2. Align on priorities (the “why”), debate methodology (the “how”): “What are the values we are going to lean back on when we disagree on something?” The Tonic team has a shared #1 priority of delivering products to customers. They may go back back and forth on how to do that, but know they’re all working towards the same goal.

3. Keep your ego out of it as much as possible. “When I talk about decision making in an organization - make sure you understand who the winner of whatever argument you're making - who is the winner, who's the main beneficiary? Maybe it’s be engineering or marketing getting more headcount. But the worst kind of winner though is your ego.”

4. The hardest decisions are the ones that impact the business and technical sides of the company. Ian’s advice: Go into these conversations with as data much as possible. Get the facts and agree on the facts (e.g., doing X will take a year of engineering work) before the conversations.

5. A large founding team can be hard, and RELIES on trust. Ian credits the success of their team in large part due to the long-term nature of their prior relationships - with nearly a decade of work or personal relationship with each member of the team. All that to say, know who you are partnering with! (Resource: 6 Biggest Mistakes When Choosing a Co-Founder and Quiz)

Where to find Tonic.ai: https://tonic.ai/

LinkedIn - tonicfakedata / Twitter - @tonicfakedata / Instagram - @tonicfakedata / YouTube - @tonicfakedata

Where to find Annie Garofalo, host & startup team relationship expert:

Website: https://www.confidante.info
Newsletter: https://confidante.substack.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-garofalo/
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In this episode, we cover:

00:00 Episode Highlights

00:24 Podcast Introduction

00:43 Meet Tonic AI's Founding Team

01:49 The Origin Story of the Co-Founders

02:53 Building Trust and Commitment in the Team

05:29 Navigating Titles and Roles in the Founding Team

11:30 The Challenges of Fundraising and Investor Relations

15:29 Infusing Humor and Levity into the Company Culture

18:42 Navigating Personal and Professional Relationships in the Team

21:14 Shared Decision Making in the Founding Team

26:22 Advice for Other Founding Teams

29:41 Submit Your Questions

30:20 More About Tonic.ai

References & Resources:

• 6 Biggest Mistakes when Choosing a Co-Founder: Article: https://confidante.substack.com/p/6-biggest-mistakes-choosing-a-co / Quiz - https://cofounder-agreement.involve.me/6-biggest-mistakes-choosing-a-cofounder

• TechCrunch Data on Co-Founders & Fundraising: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/

Podcast produced by www.confidante.info. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@confidante.info.

Annie may be an investor, advisor, or coach for the companies discussed.

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