Pick the right business partner

The two brothers had been at the bar since they had left the office together almost six hours earlier. Slurring his speech, the older brother offered his sibling, who had recently come to work for him, 10% of his company. It was an impetuous gesture he would later come to regret.

Soon after the drunken night at the bar, the younger brother quit his big brother’s company for a job in aircraft maintenance, a field he had studied in college. Nine years later, the older brother sold his company only to have his younger brother come back looking for his 10% of the sale proceeds.

The big brother felt slighted by his sibling’s defection and refused to pay. They have not spoken to each other in two years.

It’s natural to want to share the experience of entrepreneurship with a partner. And some of the most successful companies have been started by a team of two: Bill Gates and Paul Allen (Microsoft) and Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google) jump to mind. But before you throw equity around like beads at Mardi Gras, here are 10 questions to ask yourself.

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