Raimonds Simanovskis: Finding a Good Business Partner Is Harder Than Finding a Spouse

Startup founders often focus on ideas, technology, and funding, but overlook whether partners can make decisions together after the initial enthusiasm wanes. According to Raimonds Simanovskis, founder and CEO of eazyBI, ideas can be changed, products rebuilt, but once a company is formed, partners are tied by shares, contracts, and shared responsibility.

The first step is reaching the customer. Novice founders have plenty of ideas, but it is harder to test whether the solution solves a problem significant enough for someone to pay. Long planning provides false security; the real direction emerges from conversations with early customers. The first prototype must be clear enough for the customer to understand the problem and say whether they are interested. Programs like StartSchool help train this workflow. Since the Latvian market is too small for an ambitious tech company, early assessment of how team skills can create a product with value abroad is necessary.

Artificial intelligence has changed the initial steps. If a founder has experience and a clear understanding of the problem, AI agents can help create a first prototype faster, even without an experienced programmer. This allows showing the client a solution version with lower initial costs. However, it is easy to confuse a technical demonstration with a finished product. A prototype helps test direction and get feedback, but it becomes a usable product only when the team can fix bugs, adjust features, maintain the solution, and understand how to sell it. AI speeds up the first step, but people build the company.

There is no single formula for team size. Simanovskis founded eazyBI alone in 2011 because he had a technical education and experience in programming, project management, and sales. The first month after launching the app generated $9,000 in revenue, and the first year exceeded $150,000. In many startups, such workload is too much for one person, so a team is needed.

Co-founder suitability is revealed through joint work. A common risk is rushing into an agreement after a hackathon or a successful conversation. Daily operations show whether people share views on risk, time investment, and product direction. Before formalizing co-founder status, people should work together in real conditions to see who takes responsibility, finishes tasks, listens to customers, and can change their mind. A business partnership is not a continuation of friendship; it is a long-term working relationship where one must discuss money, duties, mistakes, and responsibility even in uncomfortable conversations.

Trust enables team growth. As the company grows, the founder must change their management style. In a larger team, they cannot check every step, so they must delegate responsibility. eazyBI has 33 employees with very low turnover, indicating a good environment. Trust requires clear direction and understandable boundaries – people need to know where the company is going and in which matters they can decide independently. If mistakes are not due to negligence or dishonesty, the leader must inform the team and customers about what happened, what was learned, and how they will proceed.

Simanovskis concludes that choosing a business partner is not an initial formality; it determines whether the team will survive product changes, complex customer requirements, and incorrect assumptions. An idea can be tested quickly, but only time shows people's ability to work together.