Aviel Ginzburg, left, and Damon Cortesi

Damon Cortesi: I had a brief moment of co-founder envy recently watching the two co-founders of NearlyWeds.com celebrate a victory. It stung just enough to make me wince. Then, I realized, that for the first time in a year and a half, I'm working with somebody that's not only vested in my startup as much as I am, but that I see every single day.

Even though I had a co-founder in my security startup, we were in different states and communicated by phone and IM. It was easy to get distracted.

When good things happen, sharing it in a tiny voice with somebody a thousand miles away just doesn't have the same mental stimulation and motivation that even a high-five can produce. When bad things happen, there is nobody to look you in the face and reassure you. Or jump into a conference room and hammer out what needs to be done, no matter how long it takes.

I had the pleasure of catching up with Clay McDaniel at SMC Seattle the other night and at one point he mentioned how he and a co-founder had seen each other every single day, and most nights, when he was working on a startup. It was nice to know I'm in good company.

Starting a company is not something you do between nine and five, nor is it something you do between five and bed. In the short three weeks that we've been a company, I'm pretty sure I've seen Aviel every single day and worked together on our company every single day, morning and night. Yes, weekends, too.

In short, we're communicating constantly and that's essential for a number of reasons.

Our responsibilities change on a daily basis. Keeping each other up-to-date on what we're working on is a lot easier if I can look five feet to my right and ask a 30-second question. Not only that, but I can determine a lot of that without even verbalizing.

Constant sanity checks also help both of us to not get mired in the depths of something we're focusing on. When you're working alone, it's far too easy to go down a path that you think is appropriate.

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Taking the startup plunge, and taking you along for the ride.

Who owns what? How to split equity in a startup company.

Co-founder trials: Our first project

Again, having somebody to bounce those quick questions off of or whiteboard for a quick five minutes is absolutely invaluable. Not to mention it's usually easier to convey concepts visually, rather than through IM or voice communication, even with my limited drawing skills.

This comes in to play constantly with the both of us. Aviel's a great designer and I can't hold a candle to the work that he does, but I can still be valuable by being critical and honest.

When we first started working together not that long ago, there were times I'd hold back my initial impression of a design he was working on. I quickly realized, though, that it was much more valuable for me to provide feedback early in the process. It comes back the other way when he tells me that I’m focusing on a feature without fully considering its importance.

I constantly find the iterative process of software development and design amazing and you can't learn without reflecting on your work or having somebody tell you that what you're doing is crazy.

The sense of shared responsibility is also important.

We're both in this to make something great. But we're human and we both have lives.

Some days I might not be on top of my game, and it's nice to have somebody to rely on when that's the case, and the same goes for Aviel.

We've already experienced this a couple times and the balance that it brings and allows is exceptionally helpful. A very simple example is just the energy and collaboration of putting two minds together in the same room. It's easy to get excited about something when there's somebody else motivating you with conversation and body language.

I'll admit, it was tough in the last startup to keep motivated through the ups and downs. When it was up, I was focused and kicking butt. But when it was down ... I just dwelled on what I was doing and why I was doing it. I questioned if it was where I really wanted to be.

And while I could have called my co-founder and lamented over the phone, that simply wasn't a comfortable means of communication for me. Now, and we're only three weeks in, when one of us hits a down, we rely on the other to temporarily assume slightly more responsibility.

There's a lot that goes into starting a company. I've been in an odd limbo for the past couple years partially on my own, partially not, but it's nice to be starting a business with a co-founder.

Not only because of the additional skill and expertise that he brings to the table, but also because of the way it allows both of us to balance and execute as a team.

Editor's Note: Startup Confidential is written by Aviel Ginzburg and Damon Cortesi. The series will follow the ups and downs of the Seattle technology entrepreneurs as they try to get their new business, tentatively called Untitled Startup, off the ground.