How to Select, Manage and Grow a Co-Founding and Equal Partnership Relationship

 

For their seventh episode of Like It’s Your Job, Matt and David Shields brought on two innovators in the debt capital delivery world: Joe Beard, CEO, and Joel Radtke, President & COO, of CollateralEdge.

CollateralEdge is an innovative fintech platform that provides community and regional banks with a flexible, automated risk management solution to strengthen the credit profile on individual corporate loans. In addition, Beard and Radtke shared their backgrounds, experiences, insights and philosophies on managing and co-founding a business.

While David Shields pointed out most lawyers see more challenges than positives to a 50-50 business partnership, Beard and Radtke are proving the exception to the rule. So, why did they choose to form a partnership rather than start separate businesses?

“This is how I look at it,” Radtke said. “If the business is a lemonade stand, you should probably do it yourself because of the fun, the uniqueness, the little decisions you make; you want control of that. When you set your sights on building a great company, in a big market, with a difficult problem, you need to multiply the number of ideas. You need to make sure all of the priorities and expirations that need to happen to address this don’t get short shrift just because you’ve reached your mental limits or you’re exhausted at the end of the day.”

For Beard, he recognized that he could have an even more significant impact on the world with the right business partner by his side with all his talents and abilities.

“Having a true peer in terms of what you bring to the table is critical,” Beard said. Beard sees it as a “two heads are better than one” situation with the complex nature of business.

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