How I Met My Co-founder — The Power of ‘Keeping in Touch’

Finding the right co-founder is possibly the most essential part of building a successful company - it can make or break a startup. Ideally, you’d want someone who is fully invested in the idea and shares your incessant passion because building a company requires serious commitment -- it is quite comparable to raising a child together. 

Many startup co-founders have interesting stories to share about their first meeting but my case is quite unique. Unlike others, I never set out to find a co-founder - I wasn’t even thinking about starting a business. Luckily, for me, staying in touch with a friendly ex-colleague, made me an entrepreneur and gave me a great co-founder.

Here’s How Keeping in Touch with an Ex-Colleague Changed my Life

Four years ago, while leading a team of SEO strategists at one of the top London-based digital agencies, I interviewed a 21-year-old college graduate from Norwich, Antonio Wedral, for a junior content strategist position in the company. Despite his age, he had an incredible knowledge of digital marketing, having completed projects for the local council when he was still in school. As he got hired, we worked on several projects together while enjoying a great working relationship. 

Half a year later, I left the agency to work for a popular furniture brand, Made.com, as their SEO manager. I thought that would be last time I’d see Antonio, but as we were members of the same meetup and WhatsApp groups, we kept in touch. Shortly after, Antonio left the agency job to work for a fashion publication, and we began to have in-person lunch meetings.. While still in full-time employment, I launched an eCommerce store selling men’s fashion accessories as a side hustle. It seemed natural to get Antonio involved as a part owner due to his vast experience in retail and fashion. However, we ended up working on the idea together as co-founders -- this marked the beginning of our first business together. I’d advise that it is a good move to start a small project with someone to gauge their compatibility before diving into a big endevour like running a company together -- in my case, it wasn’t planned. 

I took some freelance gigs to fund the marketing of our eCommerce store, but interestingly, the freelance work started to take off and become more regular. One day, eating the smallest, most overpriced burger for lunch on a boat in Paddington, Antonio expressed his thoughts about expanding the freelancing into an actual agency. Initially, I was against the idea due to previous bad experiences at my old agencies, and it seemed a very saturated industry. However, we started to build out the idea and came to an agreement around the business proposition and how we could stand out and differentiate in the saturated market. Within six months, Antonio had quit his job and moved out of London to work on the agency full time. I left made.com at the end of 2018 to work on the agency full time as we acquired more clients.

Within four years of meeting, including a year where we didn’t work together but kept in touch, we are now co-founders of NOVOS, an eCommerce agency that has worked with 80 eCom brands, employs a team of 15 very talented professionals, has won international awards and is aiming for a turnover of ￡1 million in the coming months.