5 The dilemma of naming a founding team
In the nine startups I either founded or ran or both, I have had one, two, three, five and six founders. How that is determined is not a science but a very important art that sets the stage for how the company culture will materialize.
I came in to MasPar as number twelve but because of my research at Duke, they made me honorary founder number six which had no substance to it such as stock or title. When Borland acquired Open Environment Corp in Boston and I and four key leaders from OEC were the five real founders of Webspective. At FactPoint I and the Chief Marketing Officer were the two founders. At GeoTrust, the CEO and me in the COO role, were a founding team of two. Later, almost the same group of four from Webspective recruited me to be a co-founder with them of Service Integrity. Aguru had a founding team of three. Mogility had a founding team of two. Ambric also had two formal founders but they added me in later as the founder of the software division. I recruited a core team of five very senior engineers to join me as the six of us became the founding team of Dover. For the TV production company called Can Do Productions, the producer and I were the founders. And the non-profit The Who Says I Can’t Foundation is the sole example of me being a solitary founder.