What Makes A Business Partnership Work - an Interview with our Co-Founders

By Yanna Solace Adofina

Wanting to start a business, but you’re undecided whether to go solo or with a partner? Here are some thoughts from our very driven lifelab co-founders, Hannes and Lisa.

How did you start lifelab?

H: “We were (in) between things… Lisa just came back from Kenya, she took up a Social Innovation course there, and I started a small company here, but not with the right business partner. This guy left everything behind… and he took a lot of money. It was a big mess; I didn’t know what to do, so I called Lisa, (to ask her) “Hey please can you help me?”, because I knew she is really intelligent and she is someone who can help me in this case. For four, five months, I think we were sitting there, just cleaning up the mess. I rented an office and some equipment… we had to fix everything and close the company in a legal way.

After that, we got this offer from the apartments and took it. We learned a lot from the first.

L: We thought, okay maybe we do this for a while, then move on to something else, but we discovered that we actually enjoy doing this, and that we have a lot of opportunities where to go with the business. That’s how we ended up accidentally being business partners.

H: Actually the base for the business background was closing the other company, because we learned from this a lot; which helped us open up the other business really fast. We already knew what to do, with accounting and other things. Another base was this small, strange idea of renting just one room for AirBnB; we already had some knowledge of how to handle international guests, how to do pricing based on the market, interior design, and all these things.

Give your personal definition of a business partnership?

H: To find a business partner, you really have to trust the person by heart. I think this is the most important part of starting a business : if you have a person that you trust 200%. This is most of the time, family. If you fully trust each other in a really deep level.

L: I think it’s really important that you don’t have questions marks when it comes to certain extreme situations. You should check for a certain set of values; like how they make decisions, and what is really important to them. You have this set of overlapping values where you don’t need to discuss everything because you come with a similar mindset built-in. You don’t have to fight about every little decision; you know the other person would see it the same way. It is also good to have different views on some topics, but the very base should be at least 80% overlapping on the important stuff.

H: I think, if we were not a couple in the last two years, we wouldn’t go that far and fast in terms of building the company, because we always gave 200% and we spent every single minute of the day together for all the problems and plans. For plain business partners, I think they wouldn’t go that far. Even in our free time, we still talk about business.

How is constant communication important in any kind of partnership?

L: I think communication for any kind of relationship, but especially in business partnership, is key. The fact that you are very open and regularly checking in with each other. We disagree, naturally…

I think it’s very important that when certain issues start to bubble under the surface and might explode at a certain point. You regularly check-in on the person, see what’s bothering them.

We had a little session last year : I initiated this because I felt a little stuck with how we were doing things. We did a strategy session; we booked a tiny house in the middle of nowhere. We checked in with each other with what our true north was, and how we wanted to move with our lives, with how the company could support our plans. We realigned our strategy a little bit, and now we feel a lot better.

I think it’s also important to take a little time off from the daily business because you get easily stuck with the things that you have to do on a regular basis. Just leave it for a few days, where you can be left alone from the hustle and bustle. This would give you some space to check in with yourself and with your partner in terms of the business’ direction.

How do you deal with shared responsibilities and delegated tasks all at the same time?

L: I think we really try for everyone to lead from their strengths; to tap into their strengths, to explore them and lead from them. If someone is better at a task, then they do it. There are also tasks that have to be done, we try to make it fair between the two of us, even though no one wants to do it.

We try to separate our tasks and responsibilities between us, but for new projects or big decisions, we try to do it together and to have both our inputs into making the decision.

H: I think it is one of our secrets, that we make all our decisions together. Sharing ideas, talking things through, you find that your opinion changes when you speak it out loud or when you discuss the points out.

We like to go the apartments together, to assist people checking in or when something needs to be fixed, instead of one of us doing it alone, because it’s boring. It’s not easy because we’ve doing this our way until now, but for the long term, I would like to find a way, in the long term, to assign different responsibilities and only to share responsibilities or tasks at times when you’re not so sure about what to do.

L: We realize that we need to adjust a lot of the process with how we would like things to work. We’re trying to make the processes smoother so we won’t require so much feedback because the information is readily available for everyone in the team.

Is it easy to have unity in terms of making business decisions?

H: We both have strong opinions, we like to discuss everything. We have different areas of responsibility, but we both like to talk about the other person and his / her responsibilites at the end of the day. We always have to find a middle way, and sometimes it’s not easy.

L: Sometimes it’s not easy, but I think in general, most of the decisions are really easy because of our base values — we don’t really need to talk about it. In tougher spots, sometimes we really disagree and it’s not easy because it’s 50-50. But then, we go back and see if we can find a third solution. Sometimes we rely on the person who has more expertise on the area, and trust them with their decision.

Do you have a business model? Is it constantly changing, or has it been the same from Day 1?

L: I would say that it is definitely constantly evolving as it is something that needs to adapt to the market. But in general, we have two different business models, for our short term and long term rentals.

H: I want to start with the vision. Actually at first, we had no vision, we just wanted to earn some money and have time for doing what we love. Eventually, we changed our vision. It is something that we love and we want to bring it to a direction that we love. The business model in general is the same, but when you go into the little details, you can see things constantly changing. We are really flexible, which I think is one of our secrets to success. We don’t take everything that gives us money, but we always think about our long term vision.

L: We have like our true north, our vision as our guiding star, where we can base our decisions. Even if someone from the outside does not understand our decisions because they rely on the classical business models, but what they don’t know is that we are preparing for things to come in the future.

What we really want to do at the core is to connect people on different levels. We want to connect people more within themselves and help them align their lives to their strengths and purpose, and to connect them to other people and nature as well. We think that this will benefit them and it will make them happier, and we found that we can do this by creating spaces — be it the apartment where they live in, or the place where they work (the future co-working space). We are very conscious of the projects we take on; we are mindful whether they match our core values, if they are sustainable and of good quality.

Really the business model is just a tool, something that helps us get to our vision. But ultimately, the driving force is the vision and the values.

Your partnership is very special, as you are also a couple as well. Does this situation make it easier or harder to work together?

H: It has good and bad sides. For me, it’s fun because when we go somewhere and meet people we haven’t seen for a long time.

L: We experience so much, and everything’s fast-paced, and if we meet people, since we don’t have much time for family and friends, we also want to share what’s happening with our lives, but we’re scared to bore people with our work.

H: Sometimes I feel like we’re a crazy couple. We bring a lot of emotion. I think from outsiders, it looks funny and all. On one side, I think that it’s cool that we’re doing this as a couple, but on the other side, we don’t find time for each other personally. It’s really challenging, and I think the only time we don’t talk about work is if we are going out of the city. Even then, sometimes we still talk about work.

L: It’s really hard to differentiate work time and private time. You slip back easily into work behavior. Also, you’ve been around each other for so long, sometimes you need time for yourself. What really helps is to consciously create that space, and to physically move so that you are in a different setting.

How would it be different if you were solo entrepreneurs?

L: I don’t even want to think about it. I don’t have a very strong preference for extroversion, but I’m definitely extroverted and I really like to work in a team. To bounce off ideas with each other, and to have someone to check-in with, and someone who understands what you’re doing. It really wouldn’t be my favorite setting, I imagine it to be quite lonely.

H: Most of the time we find better solutions together. There are businesses that you can do on your own, no problem. But for me, what we started here… it’s already bigger compared to what we started. We would have never managed this individually.

L: Even if you have people who do things for you, having a business partner challenges your views, someone lean on each other during times of difficulties. I can’t imagine having to go through all of this alone. Yeah, some decisions might be faster if you do it by yourself, but definitely not of the same quality when you have a business partner.

What advice would you give to our readers who are thinking about getting into a business partnership?

L: Yeah, I think we’ve established that : Don’t do it alone (going into business). Don’t take rash decisions when it comes to choosing who to do it with. Be very conscious about your choice, imagine critical incidents and make sure that the person is someone you can trust despite everything.

In a business partnership, there should be an overlap of values.

H: Money shouldn’t be something to discuss about. Just about the vision, that you’re heading the same way.

L: That you’re openly communicate about money and your expectations. If you’re only doing it for the money, then don’t do it.