Meeting the right co-founders is arguably the most important part of starting and running a successful business. But what exactly makes co-founders “right”?
First and foremost, their risk tolerance needs to be similar to yours. Naturally, some people will be more risk-averse than others, but on the arbitrary scale of risk tolerance, founders need to group closer to the higher end of the spectrum. After all, most businesses fail.
Second, they need to have complementary skill sets. What those are, vary greatly between businesses and people, but you generally want co-founders who can actively pick up different projects based on their inherent strengths and interests.
Lastly, and very importantly, they need to be committed for the long term and not bail when inevitably it gets tough. It’s truly a marathon.
Almost eight years into co-running StackAdapt, I couldn’t feel more blessed to have undertaken this adventure with Ildar and Yang. Today, I want to share what I think makes them such successful business leaders, and what qualities they bring to the table that inspire and motivate me.
Ildar and Yang in our Spadina office (~2017). StackBot on the wall!
Hard work is a critical skill
After we landed our very first customer, we only had two weeks to get the platform ready for the launch of our very first campaign. We were thrilled to have this first market validation, but we were nervous about whether we were able to complete it before the deadline.
We saw Yang only a couple of times during those two weeks, the reason being that he would stay up all night coding. I don’t know how many hours he spent every day working, but knowing how he works now, I am certain it was likely every hour he was awake.
What is truly amazing about Yang is that he is the type of person who doesn’t just work hard under a looming deadline. When he works, he works hard, because I don’t think he knows any other way. Yang works hard not just when he is building software and managing engineering teams, but also when he contributes across the entire company. For example, did you know that the StackAdapt name was first proposed by him? Or that the first logo was designed by him? Yang has incredible business acumen and is an idea machine. I attribute it all to his work ethic - he works hard on any problem presented to him and he generates tremendous output.
Yang working on his lap while dining at a fancy restaurant in New York City (2018).
Without Optimism there is little hope
Every day when I leap out of bed, make a cup of hot Earl Grey tea with milk, and look outside, it’s not uncommon for me to exclaim “Another day in paradise”!
In fact, I picked that up years ago from Ildar, and now it has become a part of me. Ildar’s optimism translates into his unique ability to look into the future and imagine the work that needs to be done for it to become a reality.
In the summer of 2014 when Ildar's wife and children went to Russia, he decided to use the six weeks they were away as an opportunity to work extra hard reaching out to prospective customers. To save time on the commute, he bought an inflatable bed that he kept inflated in one of the closets of our small dingy office. Every day, he woke up at dawn to work out and shower at the gym a block away, and he stayed up past the time when the building would turn off all the lights, working in total darkness.
Ildar and I bought and delivered a second-hand fridge for that exact office (2014).
I learned about all this when I came into the office early one day. In the rays of sunlight that were beaming into the office, I saw smoke. I ran to the small kitchenette that was around the corner from the entrance and spotted Ildar, a giant smile on his face, cooking up a storm on an electric stove that he bought.
It is not just Ildar’s commitment to success that helps us succeed, but his optimistic outlook. Ildar genuinely believes that anything is possible. One day, I will ask him if when we just started the company, he truly believed that it would become this big. But I suspect I already know the answer.
The Fighting Spirit
What I always found remarkable about Yang is his fighting spirit - his willingness to face any challenge head-on, and not back down, even when things are tough. Perhaps it is his martial arts training, but Yang seems to not be phased by obstacles - he knows that there are no unsolvable problems, just those that require perseverance, which he has in spades. Yang doesn’t shy away from difficult tasks and always steps up to carry the heavy load.
But if I was to distill down everything that makes Yang such a great business partner and founder is that he shows up. Whether it is getting on stage to talk about our business in front of a room of investors, meeting clients across the country, or getting soaked swimming during a team event (picture below) Yang never needs convincing to do any of it -- he just dives in! Even if he is ever nervous or doubtful about any of it, he never lets it show.
Yang and I during a swimming challenge at a team event (2018).
Working with Yang, I have always felt like he has my and our team’s back - and that’s a very comforting feeling.
You Can’t Create a Founder without Ambition
I have always thought of myself as a rather ambitious person - until I met Ildar, who totally reshaped how I think about what big goals and ideas can look like.
His ambition is driven by deep curiosity about how the world works, and he is able to see things from surprising, new angles that allow him to discover the quickest path to those ambitious goals. His observations range from business-related, such as when he told me in March 2020 that we had an opportunity to go global and grow the company not despite the pandemic but because of it, to completely random but curious ones. For example, one day he told me that it occurred to him that if you travel a distance equal to that between Vaughan, Ontario and Toronto (the commute he made every day on a train) vertically, you would actually end up in the stratosphere. Or his now-famous (at least to me) saying: “even rocket science is not rocket science”, as a way to explain that even some of the most complex things can be distilled down to simpler parts and that, if you have experts, you can tackle any problem.
Ildar during one of his countless whiteboard sessions (2015).
Consistently, Ildar has pushed me to think bigger. What is unique about Ildar, however, is his ability to not just dream up new ideas but come with a clear gameplan on how to get there. The combination of his ambitious personality and his “roll-up-your-sleeves” attitude is what makes him such an effective leader.
A timed selfie during a weekend working session (2018).
They say we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. I am thrilled to have both Ildar and Yang as two of them. Thank you, gentlemen.