Here's What Nobody Tells You About Finding the Right Business Partner
🗓️ MARINA MIDDLETON POSTED TO THE GROUP CHAT May 21, 2026
Leadership & Identity | Money, Power, & Culture
I learned about Create & Cultivate after I had left the corporate world and was an entrepreneur for a few years. At that point, I had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on business coaches, masterminds, attending large-scale events, and watching my husband build large-scale events. I'd go to all of these things, and I always felt like there was a huge gap and something missing for the world that I was in, which was career advancement for women. At that time I was helping women founders and women in corporate build and monetize their personal brands.
When I went to a Create & Cultivate summit in NYC in 2022, I was amazed. I was in the room with hundreds of women and I saw a brand that had built something real over ten years, a community that genuinely loved it, yet a gap between where it was and where it could go.
Jaclyn Johnson had spent over a decade building Create & Cultivate into something women trusted. But after she sold it and stepped away, the business changed, the world changed, and what women needed to grow changed. I was in the heart of it.
Fast forward - after four months of Jaclyn and I working together through The Blueprint Mastermind, Jaclyn found out that the private equity owners of Create & Cultivate were looking to sell.
What's unique about my situation is that I acquired the assets of a brand, meaning Jaclyn and I became equal partners and started a completely new entity, and what we bought was the logo, the email list, the trademarks. Externally, that doesn't matter to people because all they see is the same logo, but on paper, that's the most important thing when understanding how the business is structured, equity, roles, responsibilities, the trajectory of the business.
That was honestly the most exciting thing for me. On paper we became founders of this new business, we were equal partners, and I became the Chief Executive Officer and she became Chief Creative Officer, and we had the best of both worlds. I was starting from scratch and rebuilding the business while also acquiring an existing asset and having Jaclyn's historical knowledge of the brand.
So the first thing is understanding where you are and where you want to go.
I am not a hired CEO who is executing a founder's vision, and I think that's a very important distinction when you are thinking about bringing on a partner or going into business with someone. Are you a founder and need to step back into the visionary role and have someone execute your vision? Are you a business owner who is looking to bring on an equal partner? Are you looking to start a company from scratch and want to bring a partner on? The most important thing is to understand where you are and where you want to go and above all, being very clear about what it is you want. Jaclyn was very clear in our first conversation about not wanting to see Create & Cultivate not exist anymore, but also not wanting to operate, run or continue building it. Those conversations is what makes us such amazing partners and I challenge you to be very communicative about what it is you are looking for.
As the CEO, I am responsible for the success and failure of this company. Every single financial decision lands on my desk. My job is to understand the gap in the market, create a vision for what we are building, and then build it.
Jaclyn's job is to keep the brand breathing through all of it. As the Chief Creative Officer, she is the reason that through every massive change, every new revenue stream I create, every pivot, this still feels like Create & Cultivate. She is protecting the soul while I rebuild the structure and bring newness to the brand.
One person expanding. One person protecting. Both necessary. Neither interchangeable.
That is what a real partnership looks like. And it took a lot of conversations, a lot of clarity, and a lot of things written down before it worked the way it does now.
If I could go back and hand myself a checklist before we signed anything, this is what would be on it.
The Framework. What Has to Be in Place Before You Call Someone Your Partner.
01. First, know what kind of partnership you are actually entering.
There is no one version of this. Before anything else, you need to know which lane you are in.
Are you starting a brand new entity together from zero? Are you acquiring or buying into an existing brand? Are you bringing someone into something you already built? Are you hiring a CEO to run something you founded?
Each one of these requires a completely different structure, different conversations, and different expectations. Jaclyn and I were not co-founders in the traditional sense. We were two people forming a new entity around an existing brand, each bringing something the other could not. That distinction mattered legally, operationally, and personally. Get clear on what this actually is before you name a single title or agree to a single number.
02. What is on paper matters more than what is understood between you.
I do not care how well you know this person. I do not care how much you trust them. I do not care if you have been friends for fifteen years.
Get it in writing.
The partnership agreement is not a sign that you do not trust each other. It is a sign that you respect each other enough to be clear. Define the roles. Define the decision-making authority. Define what happens if one person wants out. Define what happens if you disagree. Define it before you need it, because by the time you need it you will not want to have the conversation.
03. Roles and responsibilities. Not job titles. Actual domains.
A title tells you nothing. CEO, CCO, COO, these are words. What matters is who owns what, and where each person's authority begins and ends.
Write actual job descriptions for each partner. Each person should sign an employment agreement. What decisions does this person make without consulting the other? What requires a conversation? What is completely outside their lane? When you are clear about domains, you eliminate the overlap that kills most partnerships. Not because of bad intentions. Because of confusion.
04. Equity and payment. Have the actual conversation.
This is the one people avoid the longest and regret avoiding the most.
There is no universally right answer on how to split equity. What matters is that the split reflects what each person is actually bringing, what they are expected to do going forward, and what motivates each of them.
A 50/50 split says something. A 60/40 says something different. Neither is inherently better. But both need to be intentional. Some things worth getting clear on before you agree to any number: Are you both putting in capital or is one person putting in more? Are you both involved day-to-day or does one person have a different level of engagement? What does each person need financially to show up fully? What does the equity say about the power dynamic, and are you both comfortable with that?
The conversation about what motivates each of you is more important than the number you land on.
05. Find someone whose skills you do not have.
This sounds obvious. Most people ignore it anyway.
We are drawn to people who think the way we do, who see the world the way we do, who validate the decisions we were already going to make. That is not a partner. That is a mirror.
Before you bring someone in, be completely honest about where your gaps are. Then find the person who fills them, not the person who agrees with you the most.
06. Hard conversations are not a sign something is wrong.
This is the one I want women to hear.
Most founders avoid difficult conversations because they feel confrontational. They feel like something is breaking. They are not. A hard conversation early is a problem solved before it becomes a crisis.
The conversations about money, roles, expectations, workload, and vision are not threats to the partnership. They are the partnership. Every time Jaclyn and I have had a direct conversation about something uncomfortable, we have come out closer to aligned and better at this. Not damaged. Clearer.
Have the conversation before you sign anything. And then keep having it.
Before You Sign Anything. The Checklist.
Can you answer what kind of partnership this is, specifically and clearly?
Have you written out what each person owns and what they do not?
Have you had the equity conversation out loud, not just in your head?
Have you written actual job descriptions, not just titles?
Have you talked about what happens if this does not work?
Have you identified what this person does that you genuinely cannot?
Have you had at least one uncomfortable conversation and gotten through it well?
If you cannot answer yes to all of these, you are not ready to partner. You need to keep talking things out.
What the Data Says.
Two-founder businesses have 30% higher successful exit rates.
65% of startups fail because of business partners conflict. Compatibility is not a soft skill. It is the skill.
Founders with complementary skills report success at 68%, versus 38% without. Nearly double.
Complementary partnerships achieve 2.8x higher revenue growth than partnerships with overlapping skill sets.
80% of structured partnerships lead to long-term business success. Structured is the key word.
Getting equity wrong creates co-founder conflict, complicates fundraising, and can end the company. Getting it right aligns everyone and attracts investors.
