Welcome to another edition of Founder to Founder. In this occasion, I would like to cover the idea of working with and for friends.

I am sharing longer-form posts in the blog and will include the TL;DR here.

After almost twenty years of working experience, I have done many projects with friends and for friends. I have hired and been hired by friends. I have invested in friends as a business angel. And, also, you can replace "friends" with "relatives" or "family" and the previous statements are also true.

In 2014, I started MarsBased with my two best friends from childhood, Xavi and Jordi. Also in 2014, I started Startup Grind BCN with two of my best friends, Carlos and Alex. I hire Carol for all my designs. I have invested in three companies of my good friend Nacho González-Barros (of Infojobs fame), two of my other good friend Sunil Bhardwaj and I have co-invested in many many deals with great friends like Howard Love, Marc Miralda or Sergio Gago. I opened the Startup Grind Andorra chapter with my friend and idol from childhood Ferran Martínez. Earlier in my youth, I worked with family for many years.

It can be done.

I have started writing a guide, but I haven't been able to condense it all within a reasonable length, so I am publishing it as is: How (not) to work with friends. I will add a second part later on.

In this edition, I cover contracts, communication, conflicts and pricing. In the next edition, I will cover co-founding, hiring and investing.

And now, onto the braindump of the week!

Podcasts

Really really enjoyed this week, when it comes to podcasts:

• Conan O'Brien interviews Billy Crystal and discusses multi-faceted personal growth and being a jack of all trades vs a specialist.
• Marc Andreessen on building Netscape & the birth of the browser.
• My First Million's motivational kick in the ass: you've got 70 days to win the year.
• Following the landslide win of FC Barcelona over Real Madrid, La Sotana did one of their best shows ever.

Reads

Short and long reads for all!

• Google's Notebook could be the end of structured CRMs.
• Derek Sivers' "Here's how to live: Be independent".
• Instagram keeps stealing valuable handles off regular users.
• BlueSky is not decentralised.
• Diego Mariño and David Bonilla launch an M&A boutique.
• Nozbe's take on Google's 20% rule: Mighty Fridays.

My projects

• I recorded a goodbye podcast episode in Spanish and one in English to say thank you to everyone who accompanied in the 10 years of Startup Grind.
• The Foc a Terra episode that inspired this week's topic (in Catalan).

Asks

Some for me, some for my portfolio companies:

• Need a DLC specialist with experience with influencers.
• Need more fractional CTOs to enlarge my list of trusted go-to people. In fact, I need one ASAP for a cybersecurity project.
• My portfolio company Delitbee continues growing and needs intros to restaurant chains. Hit me up if you know any.

Misc

Many many many thanks for the love and gratitude I have received in the last two weeks, since announcing my departure from Startup Grind. Hundreds of emails, LinkedIn posts and whatsapps have flooded my inboxes. Some people even took time to call me to tell me great stories about their time spent at Startup Grind events with us.

Also, many thanks to the subscribers & paid supporters of this newsletter. While I certainly don't need the money, it is inspiring for other people following me. I hope they start their own newsletter and make a living out of it!