I've found that cofounders can be both a blessing and a curse. I started something on my own that failed because I lacked the discipline to lock my brain in to work mode from 9am to 5pm. Working in my apartment - sometimes still in whatever I slept in - made me blur the lines between what was life and what was work. If you have a cofounder, at the very minimum you'll have to get dressed in the morning :) Hopefully, you'll also have someone keeping you accountable to deadlines, questioning what you did that day, and so on. Not in a manager style, but because they genuinely need to know what you've done every day.
But I've also started things with cofounders that didn't work out (I wouldn't say "failed" because they were more false starts than outright failures). You really do have to think of cofounding like a marriage, because you and your cofounder have to have the same set of goals. In 10 years, do you still want to be working side by side with this person? Could you take direction from them if you ultimately decide they should be the final say on something? Do you have the same exit strategy? Do you want to live in the same city as them? Do you want a small company or a big one? What kind of culture do you want your company to have? When are you both quitting your day jobs / consulting?
It may seem like discussing these things are premature when you're hacking in a garage, but the answers aren't nearly as important as the questions. You don't want to have a vision for selling a 50 person company to Google while your cofounder sees your startup as side income to his day job. And you definitely don't want to see your startup as an 80 hour/week gig while your cofounder sees it as a 10/hour week gig.
I follow Seth Godin's advice on partnership: 50/50 is a bad idea, period. Business requires decision-making, and someone should be the final say. If you wouldn't be okay deferring to your cofounder (even when he is wrong), maybe it's not the right cofounder. And ownership should be a factor determined by both time and money put in, not one or the other. Your agreement with your partner should stipulate how much time you'll be logging for the project, and ownership should be tied to actually "showing up".
The first paragraphs sums up what I think on the matter.
If you are at home... nobody is depending on you... It's easy to "drift". If somebody is there to say "Hey, did you finish X?" - that can be enough to get you to remember what you were doing, and get on it, without going off onto obscure feature land.
Whether you're hyper-motivated (and have a tendency to obsess about small things that don't matter) or under-motivated (and have a tendency to not really produce unless necessary), you'll benefit from a partner.
Just knowing someone else in the world loves your idea helps too. But again, I have to agree with the OP, make sure you are on the same page. Those "it sounds cool I'll chip in when I have time" people can be an absolute drain of your time and energy. (Those who want both money and an equity stake for one specific piece of the puzzle are the worst).
A co-founder has to be as committed as you are to derive the benefits.
But I've also started things with cofounders that didn't work out (I wouldn't say "failed" because they were more false starts than outright failures). You really do have to think of cofounding like a marriage, because you and your cofounder have to have the same set of goals. In 10 years, do you still want to be working side by side with this person? Could you take direction from them if you ultimately decide they should be the final say on something? Do you have the same exit strategy? Do you want to live in the same city as them? Do you want a small company or a big one? What kind of culture do you want your company to have? When are you both quitting your day jobs / consulting?
It may seem like discussing these things are premature when you're hacking in a garage, but the answers aren't nearly as important as the questions. You don't want to have a vision for selling a 50 person company to Google while your cofounder sees your startup as side income to his day job. And you definitely don't want to see your startup as an 80 hour/week gig while your cofounder sees it as a 10/hour week gig.
I follow Seth Godin's advice on partnership: 50/50 is a bad idea, period. Business requires decision-making, and someone should be the final say. If you wouldn't be okay deferring to your cofounder (even when he is wrong), maybe it's not the right cofounder. And ownership should be a factor determined by both time and money put in, not one or the other. Your agreement with your partner should stipulate how much time you'll be logging for the project, and ownership should be tied to actually "showing up".