Online Partners, does it work?

Anyone here run a website/business with an online partner? I've never really wanted to work with anyone (especially if I didn't know them in person) trust is a big issue online, then there are other factors, communication issues, difference of opinion etc.

Do you think working with a partner online is beneficial or pointless? So many people at one time or another have asked me "Do you want to be my partner in this business" and every time i've questioned why exactly, what can I do bring to your website that you can't do yourself? Surely, online partnerships only hinder your revenue and cause more problems than they're worth!

I have many friends who have had brief partnerships online and nearly all of them have ended miserably. Share your stories/opinions here

A partnership is a sinking ship

Agreed. Online partnerships are a plea for disaster.

I'm partnered online with a friend, I've known him for over a year now and first met him on yaxay.

Things have developed and in a few months (or weeks!) we're going to be launching a few websites together. There are many advantages. If one partner has a certain skill and the other has another, shared costs on everything and shared work loads.

My partner helps me a lot, and has helped me become a better designer. His expertise are in one area, and mine are in another - so we both benefit.

Yeah, but you both have to share the profits

The best partnership for me has been with my soon to be wife. We own a large quanity of small LLC companies--all of which are kept up quite well because of our ability to communicate so well.

Partnerships work well, they don't have to be 50/50 partners. I have a web hosting partner that provides my clients with all their hosting requirements. She charges at her own rate and I pass this cost on to the clients. It helps that she is my sister too

The core issue with partnerships is control, who has the final say? who decides on the elements used? structure? communication?....who controls it all?

I personally could not have a partner making decisions side by side with me.

I think it depends what sort of partnership it is - is it a couple of kids 'clubbing' together to sell hosting, or is it adults creating a proper business?

For kids 'clubbing together' then I'd have to say 99% of the time it ends in disaster. One falls out with the other over something stupidly pointless, and then the whole thing falls apart. They might then get left with a handful of clients who want to know what's going on, and then they bring other businesses into it. For example, what do they do with that vBulletin license they purchased, that WHM.AutoPilot license, that xxxx license? All too often I see 2 kids purchasing something together, falling out, and then both of them wanting the license - which means they have to involve real companies to sort out their dispute. A couple of kids coming together rarely works. I do know of a few exceptions where mature kids can come together and work together and are actually successful, but it's rare.

On the other hand, you get adults who can work together online without ever meeting each other. A great example of this is the WHM.AutoPilot host billing system. In 2002, one guy thought "I need a billing system for my host, others do as well. I want to make one." and then searched online for a programmer to partner with. He got one, and to this day they are still working together after 2 major version releases (and hundreds of minor releases). Together they’ve created the number 2 billing system for web hosts, even though they’ve never met in person. They both now work full time on the billing script, with one guy doing support & sales, while the other guy develops the software. You couldn't get a better match if you wanted.

Someone brought up the issue about having to share the profit, so what? If you go it alone chances are you won't be ‘overly’ successful. Go find someone like minded, work towards a common goal, and do things properly (registered business, contracts etc...) and you're almost guaranteed to be more successful than if you'd gone it alone - and more success = more money. Chances are you’d land up with a bigger market share, more clients, and more cash than if you’d done it alone. There's also the issue of holidays. If you do something by yourself, if you go on holiday, you need to either work while on holiday (horrible thought!) or pay someone else to look after things for you, who may not know the business. If you work alongside someone else, then you know that if you go away, there is someone there to look after the business who knows it inside out.

I'm sure there are exceptions to each, but, it's certainly possible for two people to come together and produce something worthwhile that is successful. If they are mature, and both want to see something succeed then I can't see why 2 (or more) people working together can't be successful.

Depends on the people involved in the partnership. I've been involved in two. One which has failed and another which is doing extremely well. There are a lot of things which need to be factored in. Partnerships work extremely well for some people and not so well for others. You can't really generalize.

i guess trust is the key to partnership and if it just someone you met online...then its hard to gauge the persons sincerity.

a few months back someone offer me a partnership with him doing the designs/web hosting and me the "money man"
in the end , it fail apart because he could not handle the stress.
but i think it is still workable like offline joint ventures!

i am looking for a venture to invest some $$$ ...anybody has a business idea?