Choosing a business partner is one of the most consequential decisions an entrepreneur can make. You may spend years working alongside this person, navigating difficult decisions, pursuing opportunities, solving problems, and inevitably dealing with setbacks.
Over the course of my career, I have worked with many talented executives, entrepreneurs, and investors. The strongest partnerships I have seen tend to share a few qualities.
Drive and resilience
Entrepreneurship requires grit and stamina. There are long nights and seven-day weeks. You spend time away from your family. There are invariably setbacks, even failures. Looming above all of that is the risk that all entrepreneurs take on.
I want to work with people who respond to these realities with, “Okay. So what do we do next?”
It is that drive and resilience that separate the wheat from the chaff in the hard world of entrepreneurship.
A good partner should bring energy to the business when things are going well and determination when they aren’t. Some of the most important breakthroughs come after an initial failure, provided you have people around the table willing to learn, adjust, and keep moving.
Intelligence and judgment
Being smart matters, but judgment matters just as much – if not more. That is the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Entrepreneurs constantly make decisions with incomplete information. A strong partner can absorb new information, identify what matters, and make a reasoned decision without waiting for perfect certainty.
I also value intellectual curiosity. The best businesspeople I know continue asking questions regardless of how experienced they become. They listen attentively. They want to understand their customers, their competitors, their industry, and the broader forces shaping their business.
The confidence to disagree
I have little interest in surrounding myself with people who simply tell me what they think I want to hear.
A good partner should be willing to challenge your assumptions and tell you when they believe you are making a mistake. That can make conversations more difficult in the short term, but it leads to better decisions over time.
Of course, you want disagreement to be productive – you don’t want obstinacy. You want someone who can argue strongly for a position, listen seriously to another perspective, and ultimately get behind a decision once it has been made.
Complementary strengths
The best partner is not necessarily someone who thinks like you or has the same skills you do. In fact, there is tremendous value in finding someone who brings capabilities and perspectives that you lack.
Entrepreneurs should understand their own strengths, but they should be equally candid about their weaknesses. A partner who fills those gaps makes the entire organization stronger.
Trustworthiness
Finally, there is no substitute for trust.
Business partnerships are tested when circumstances become difficult. You need confidence that your partner will be candid with you, keep commitments, take responsibility when something goes wrong, and put the long-term interests of the enterprise ahead of personal ego.
Elliott Broidy is Chairman and CEO of Broidy Capital Holdings, a family office specializing in AI-driven public safety software.