You two are probably at different
places in your lives. If you're 38 or 48, chances
are good you've met Mr. or Ms. Right and may even have your own
share of family responsibilities. Your twentysomething partner is
likely to be free of such ties and may expect you to work as
tirelessly and relentlessly as a 23-year-old who has nothing but
time to grow a business.
"I have three relatively young kids," muses Dan
Kaplan, the 49-year-old vice president of Los Angeles-based
LowerMyBills.com, a Web site that allows consumers to research,
compare and lower their recurring bills. The site launched in
February and Kaplan expects it to bring in $1 million in its first
year. "I've done the working all hours, where your
business is your wife and child. That's one reason I didn't
get married until I was 33. Who had time for that?"
LowerMyBills.com's CEO, Matthew Coffin, is 31. If he follows
the Dan Kaplan plan, he still has another couple years before he
will tie the knot. So while Kaplan leaves his office at 8
p.m.-he's no slouch, either-Coffin is still sending e-mail
missives to the business world at 1:20 a.m.
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On the other hand, if you're in your late forties, you may
be packing your kids off to college, while your younger counterpart
is investing in Pampers on etrade. Maybe you are the one who
will need to spend the most time on the business.
"[Personal-life] needs . . . are important and human,"
says 35-year-old Nina Kaufman, a New York City lawyer who advises
entrepreneurs and has a partner who is 20 years older than herself.
"But they may take time away from your business or create time
restrictions, so it's important to discuss your lifestyle with
your partner: what kind of time investment you're willing to
make, how you see your [life responsibilities] being played out
over time, and what you think your business needs."
Get to know each other.
Before he co-founded LowerMyBills.com, Kaplan was founder of Anchor
Communications, which published magazines and provided Internet
content. When Coffin, who worked for a publishing house himself,
teamed up with Kaplan to produce a joint project, the two men
started talking, and they discovered that not only did they each
have their own ideas for a new company, but they also liked each
other.
They spent one year working on their joint project-and
discussing a possible new company and their places in it. This led
them to another important step in creating a strong
partnership:
Know your roles.
That's good advice for any entrepreneurial partnership, but
crucial when you're dealing with egos young and old. "I
see my role as the seasoned veteran," says Kaplan.
"I'm sort of like a pilot, the guy who comes on the
loudspeaker when there's some bad turbulence. And then I tell
the passengers that we're hitting some pockets of air, but that
we're still cruising at a safe altitude and that we'll be
through the bad weather in about 100 miles. I'm the guy who has
been through these air pockets a hundred times."
Coffin, meanwhile, has "the absolute passion and energy to
make this company a success," says Kaplan. "Plus, he
understands the Internet in ways that I can't because I've
been working offline in business for 20 years." Coffin is also
the person sealing a lot of deals, while Kaplan works behind the
scenes.
Kaplan's role as seasoned entrepreneur may seem like one
young Generation Y mavericks would reject as old school and
unnecessary to their New Economy ventures. Not so. Barry Miller, a
management professor at the Lubin School of Business at New York
City's Pace University, observes: "The younger
entrepreneurs are telling me that they want to team up with the
boomers. They want that maturity."
Charles Reed agrees. "[The Gen Xers] really feel their lack
of experience," says the entrepreneur and business professor
at Brandeis University Graduate School of International Economics
and Finance. Reed, along with two other veteran entrepreneurs,
advises three company founders in their early 20s. Whenever Reed or
the others tell their younger counterparts that they look
amateurish-from coming late to appointments to bringing their
entire staff to meetings that only need one
representative-"they're slightly embarrassed but always
glad to hear what we think."
It can be a delicate dance, however. Sometimes, even if a
younger entrepreneur wants a mature, experienced partner, you can
come across as too old. Simply mentioning your favorite Starsky
& Hutch episode might not only date you but cause your
partner and staff to discuss entering you in a world tour
shuffleboard tournament. Sounds chilling, doesn't it? OK,
talking about a favorite old TV show may be a minor sin, but if
serious problems exist, like differences of opinions on the basics
of your company's culture, it's important to talk them out,
says Zemke. "The generation gap between entrepreneurs is more
dangerous [than your relationship with your younger staff],"
he says. "The employee generation gap problems are the more
nagging and will give you the most gastric upset, but it won't
kill your company. The partner generation gap will."
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