Workplace

Choosing a business partner is a selection problem and a legal one, and adults with ADHD frequently get the first part right and skip the second. This article argues for choosing partners by access and coverage rather than compatibility, drawing on brokerage research showing that people who connect otherwise separate groups have their ideas dismissed less often, and on founding-team research showing that entrepreneurs default to partnering with people who resemble them. It answers three questions directly: whether a partner should also have ADHD (screen for function, not diagnosis, since ADHD symptom clusters point in opposite directions for business outcomes), whether it is acceptable to partner with a friend (no, as a starting position, since each friendship inside a founding team is associated with substantially higher founder turnover and neither party will say the hard sentence when it is needed), and what documents are required (a memorandum of understanding records intent and generally does not bind, so a partnership or operating agreement is needed, drafted with an attorney because general partners can be personally liable for each other’s business decisions).