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Makoae Wilson

How do you motivate co-founders to commit with you on an idea?

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I am currently working on an idea with my team. All of us have jobs and are in different locations(same time zones). We're are struggling with productivity because only two members are fully commited on building the product. The two of us came with up with the idea and we brought two members who shared interest and the vision of the idea. The two other guys will promise to do stuff and then not deliver on them. How do you motivate them to work without being intrusive to their time. And how do you make sure they not slack?
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Sachin Tiwari
Honestly, it is presumably an issue with how committed you are. Other people can sense when you are hedging and not fully committed and they will be disinterested. You have to first fully commit yourself and come from the mentality that you will get the job done with or without other co-founders. In today's era, there are lots of options available to get your work done. One option is you can outsource your product development or any task which you want to complete. You will be much more persuasive to others when you are coming from this position and your business is not dependent on other co-founders. Make sure that you make the jump first before asking someone else to do it :)
Makoae Wilson
@isachintiwari Thanks for your response. I and the other co-founder commit ourselves to this project as much as possible. The reason why we go two more co-unders was to avoid outsourcing the product development. If we had an ability to outsource, we would not get other cofounders because they would be a dead weight just as now.
Sachin Tiwari
@wilsonkolana So might be they are only interested in your project but they are not aligned to your vision. In fact, it doesn't matter how good or innovative your vision is; if other co-founders aren't fully aligned with that vision, it has almost no chance of success. Can you first verify they are aligned with your vision or not. You should live your life by the motto, “trust but verify.” You should first find out what is the issues. After that, you can work on fixing the same.
Nachiket Patel
I think having a mutual agreement for every idea that you implement is mandatory because if the idea fails the blame has to be borne only by one person. If the idea works the credit is shared by all. It is best to have a mutual agreement for all the ideas. Sometimes others won't agree with what you think. In that case, I explain to them why I want to execute that particular idea. We then try to do the SWOT analysis of that particular idea and understand its significance. Since our primary goal is to execute everything that is for benefit of the company, we check the idea from the same angle. If the things are in favor it is likely that my teammates will agree with me. However, I prefer suggesting an idea that is backed with practical examples as it is easy to make others understand and they can also see the benefits of those ideas in a practical version. If the idea or suggestion is only theoretical, it will be inconvenient to keep everyone on the same page.
Makoae Wilson
@patelnachiket Thanks for the comment but idea generation or suggestion is not an issue here. First to even have everyone attend a meeting where we discuss the project state and share ideas, the non committed co founders can even say " I won't make it, you guys can decide and then I will work on whatever descision made", now that sounds like an employee and not a co-founder, even if the are present in the meeting and suggest something..... They do not show interest of implementing whatever that needs to be done. Even moving an issue to "in progress" on Jira is tough for them.
Nevo David
It's better to find friends and do vesting. Also meeting as much as possible to work together. Working from home is really a killer.
Makoae Wilson
@nevo_david Thank you so much for the comment.
Hugh Geiger
Two words. SUNK COST! :D Especially early, set smaller milestones, get wins quickly. This drives emotional investment, and over time.. the fear of losing what has been contributed will fuel further commitment. Some people aren't motivated by this loop. They need to be prodded. These people should be fired / let go. You need cofounders, cofounders are self driven, true believers. They won't be on day one, but they will grow into it. They should demonstrate ownership behaviours early - ie using personal time to solve problems, prototype... they should be proactive.
Makoae Wilson
@geigster thanks very much for your comment it is really helpful
Dimitris Karavias
If they need motivation they're not founders.
Yunxi Chang

To motivate co-founders, clearly communicate the vision's potential, highlight shared values, offer fair equity, and ensure a collaborative, respectful environment where their voices matter.

Alex Jost
If you dont make them follow the idea/product, make them follow you as a leader. That wins time to convice them in the long run as things get more real.
Makoae Wilson
@alexisjst I have tried so many times unfortunately it is not working in this case.
Abe Winter
Not everyone has to carry the same weight. Renegotiate the deal so everyone is putting in the amount of time they can afford. (Less time = less equity though). If you're not paying them, will you be able to get someone better? Do they do something you don't know how to do?
Makoae Wilson
@abewinter We're all programmers with more or less the same level of experience and expected to give weekends and holidays to this project as we're all mostly not available during weekdays. So they're supposed to do something that I can probably do but sharing the work would take us less time to complete than if I were to do everything myself.
Abe Winter
@abewinter @wilsonkolana if they're saving time, might as well keep them and just adjust your project timelines? Just make sure (1) the later timelines don't kill the project and (2) have a conversation about what reduced hours looks like in terms of equity comp. (I've been on both sides of this conversation at work, it doesn't have to be hostile; people who need part-time work like it).
Jeremy Cleverly
One approach I've found that has been semi-successful is to specifically designate individual responsibilities to each member. When one (or in your case two) are not pulling their weight it will become very apparent and be difficult for the individual to blame others for not having completed something. This will then give you an opening to address the shortcomings and hopefully resolve the issue amicably. Another thought might be to examine what roles each founder has assigned to them. I'm good at certain things, but not others. If I was assigned things I was not good at or did not enjoy (running payroll, accounting, etc..) I might be seen as slacking wherein actuality, that is not where my talents lie.
Makoae Wilson
Hi @jeremy_cleverly thanks for the comment. So how we work is we put a bunch of tasks in the backlog on Jira, then run a sprint with upcoming tasks then let everyone choose what they like working on as to avoid giving someone a task they do not like but still, people choose tasks and not complete them and forever claim that they got busy primary job.
Reporting Accounts
You need to keep the dialogue going, its tough to do but its the key to success. If you take the time to find out about your colleagues their interests etc it can give you more things to talk about also and help build a common interest.
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