Next week, after six and a half years, I will become the sole CEO at Avanti and Amin will transition into a Chair role. I am incredibly fortunate to have the type of partnership, in the truest sense, where we can complete a role transition of this nature and continue to want to work closely together.
About 9 months ago, my friend launched his own investment firm. In the investment memo, he had a sentence that stuck out to me: “[investment firm] is the only place [partner] and I intend to work for the rest of our careers”. I imagine there’s something satisfying about knowing with certainty you’ve found the last job you want to have in your career. I’m not sure I can say the same. I love working at Avanti and hope to be here for many years, but having only just turned 35, I can’t say with certainty it will be the last role in my career.
One thing I am certain of is I want to work closely with Amin in some capacity for the rest of my career. I’m grateful for that. It’s not easy to find someone you share a common set of values with and can enjoy working with after many years, including through many highs and lows.
In many ways, a business partnership resembles a marriage. Aside from Julia, I have spoken with Amin more than anyone else over the past 6.5 years, including family and close friends. Making it a successful partnership has required intention and effort, like all meaningful partnerships.
I first met Amin in 2011 when we both moved to San Francisco for work. Our respective roommates were mutually connected from school and we became fast friends. I believe the fact that the initial connection was social and we enjoyed spending time together has been important in making the professional partnership work well. If you’re going to spend countless hours working closely together, you must enjoy one another, and you must have a more complete understanding of the person you’re partnered with than the professional picture alone provides. Throughout our time running Avanti, we’ve continued to spend time together socially, which has had compounding benefits to the partnership. And it doesn’t hurt that Amin ended up marrying someone much cooler than he, that Julia and I both very much enjoy as well!
There are two distinct factors that stick out in terms of making the partnership a success.
The first factor was investing significant upfront time in preparing for how we would work together. We began the partnership by discussing a set of realistic scenarios that could lead to future conflicts. Some more mundane (e.g., what if I want to hire someone and you don’t like them?) and others more imaginative (e.g., what if the business does ok; not great but not terrible and one of us wants to sell the business and one of us wants to raise growth capital and keep going?). Working through those scenarios when they were hypotheticals enhanced our ability to navigate them when they became a reality. It also provided an understanding of how we might respectively approach and react to situations during times of conflict, and helped elucidate what matters most. Most of the scenarios never surfaced and I’m glad we discussed them, regardless.
The second is vulnerability-based mutual trust and humility. We both have egos and take pride in our work. And we’re also willing to accept when we’re wrong and receive feedback with an open mind. That is much easier when a deep mutual trust exists. When you know someone is challenging your thinking with the desire to get to a mutually positive outcome, even the most difficult conversations become possible.
While our roles are changing, I look forward to continuing to work closely with Amin and value the multi-faceted role he will continue to play as a friend, colleague, therapist, mentor, and advisor.
