Finding the right cofounder isn’t easy. A successful union requires the ability to play to individual strengths, to strive for honesty and openness, to compromise when necessary and stay laser-focused on the startup’s mission. Take Abraham Kamarck and Kevin Powell, two U.S. military veterans who cofounded True Made Foods in New York last year to make ketchup and other sauces sweetened mostly with vegetables. The first time Abraham Kamarck, who spent eight years as an aviator in the U.S. Navy, tasted his friend Kevin Powell’s ketchup, he wasn’t wildly impressed.
“Abe tasted it, and said ‘this isn’t really ketchup,’” recalls Powell, 35, a West Point grad who spent five years in the U.S. Army as an air defense artillery officer and is now the company’s president. That initial bout of honesty would eventually set the stage for a successful partnership between two cofounders with very different personalities. “I think what makes us able to work well together comes from our military background,” says Powell. “We are not afraid to tell each the hard truth in any facet of our business. And most importantly, after hearing that hard truth, we can still work effectively, because it's not personal. It’s about the mission.”
The duo first met in the summer of 2013, at a Techstars Patriot Bootcamp in Washington, D.C. to help so-called ”vetpreneurs” start their own tech businesses. Kamarck, now True Made’s CEO, was developing a tech startup with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Powell was working on an app to help food companies distribute their products and running his own business delivering flavored butter to Yankee Stadium. On the side, Powell and his wife, Abbey, were bottling a ketchup recipe she’d invented to help him lose weight and sneak some veggies into his diet. The couple cooked and bottled their Amazing Tomato Ketchup in their kitchen and sold at Albany-area farmers markets. The ketchup included some unlikely ingredients – spinach, carrots and butternut squash. Read More