Starting a Business with Your Best Friends
June 1st marked the start of International Pride Month! 🌈 In Utrecht, this is traditionally celebrated with a boat parade. That’s when it hit me; Next year, I need to be on one with all my friends!
Let’s be real: Looking at the boats passing by is a lot of fun of course, BUT imagine being on one! Which is exactly what I did and I hyped up all my friends, too. How does one acquire a big-ass pride parade boat you may wonder? I checked the registration rules and apparently, you can sign up as a profit/non-profit organization, a staff association, a sports club or as a friends/allies group. This year, 50 out of 80+ applications were selected so I’d say those are some pretty decent odds.
So I did what any other perfectly normal human-being would do and dusted off an app idea that some friends and I came up with years ago. The plan: Create an app for the LGBTQIA+ community - together with friends - with the goal of being able to promote the app on a boat for Utrecht Pride 2025! ✨
Since the app is focussed on building a community of friends and allies, and the idea literally came out of a night with friends, it only felt natural to try and pull this off together.
Now, I have had some frustrating experiences with starting something (and failing..) with people close to me. So this time I want it to be different, and I want to share the 3 lessons I took from it.
1. Pick a direction
When they get behind the wheel of a car, most people already know where they’re going. This is the same for a business or endeavor. You don’t need a fully fledged business plan, just a specific direction. For example, consider the below goal for our LGBTQIA+ community app (open for name suggestions):
“The point of the app is to create strong bonds between friends/allies in the community over at queer-friendly events”
With this clear waypoint on the map, you can assess every decision based on whether it brings you closer to your destination or is just a scenic-detour.
Consider the following when picking your direction:
Define Your Ideal Customer: Talk to them to understand their motivations and pain points. This helps you build the right product and find the correct price point. If your ideal customer isn’t in your network, focus on a niche you are part of. For instance, I can ask my LGBTQIA+ circles about the app.
Reach Your Ideal Customer: Set up short and simple experiments to find effective tactics instead of relying on your gut feeling. For example, you could try out cold-calling/emailing, targeted ads, word-of-mouth/referrals, farmers markets etc. Find the two that work best and focus on them. Maybe you’ll tap into new ideal customers. Then just re-iterate: talk and try things again!
Identify Your Unique Value: Determine what sets you apart. What are your talents, your unique point of view or your grit all giving you, over what competitors are doing? Simon Sinek coined ‘Start With Why‘ well over 15 years ago and it is still relevant today because people don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
Having these elements defined helps you see the big picture to decrease the risk of getting overwhelmed with the small stuff.
2. Give yourself a strict deadline
Once you know your direction and have talked to your ideal customers, prioritize finding the cheapest MVP, and set a strict deadline to get your first paying customers. The sooner, the better! You’re selling a solution to a problem your customers are having. Whether this solution is an excel sheet or a shiny app in the beginning shouldn’t matter.
Avoid spending months on coding unnecessary features, like I did in the past for Planning Pal, only to realize later it was over-kill; focus on selling the minimum viable solution. As Noah Kagan puts it, this shift from a founder-first to a customer-first mentality ensures you build something people want. Plus, getting your first customers is a huge motivation boost!
3. Set Expectations
Decide how much time, money, and resources you will invest and what you expect from others. In the early stages, it's tempting to do everything yourself, but setting realistic expectations for yourself and your team of friends is crucial for maintaining sanity (and your relationships).
Define roles clearly (don’t be like me and stop at a flashy LinkedIn title 😅). While you can learn a lot from tackling various issues, it often leads to burnout on the long run. Discuss strengths and weaknesses with your friends and focus on tasks you enjoy most.
Set communal agreements on how many days a week and hours per day everyone will work, and make it a point that everyone agrees to this. This, and open communication will help manage your expectations when not everyone can put in the same amount of time.
Not setting expectations can lead to failure. Clear expectations help avoid biases and frustrations, especially with different workloads.
So, I’m trying to set up the LGBTQIA+ app with friends with the above in mind, and it may still be a struggle at times. As long as we all end up having a blast being creative and silly while trying to do something good. Utrecht Pride 2025 here we come! Keep your 👀 peeled for invites to the official boat party!
Now, I'd love to hear from you. With the above in mind, who would you start something with? Or…
What have you learned from working on something with friends, exes or others?
P.S. Big thank you to Ranya, a friend who requested this topic 🫶🏼