Oussama Ammar
as a co-founder,
for €7,000 a year.
I had a flesh-and-blood co-founder. I tried Better Call twice. Today, I'd rather pay Oussama Ammar €7,000 a year to challenge me twice a month than hand over half my company to someone. Here's my reasoning, and the three cases where I might be wrong.
The idea in three lines
- A co-founder costs you 30 to 50% of your company, plus a salary, plus perks, plus their say in decisions — for life.
- A Better Call at €300 per half-hour, booked twice a month, comes to €7,200 a year. You keep everything else.
- I tried Better Call twice. Both times, my ideas got taken apart in 25 minutes. Both times, it was the right read.
What's a Better Call, exactly?
A 30-minute 1-to-1 advising session over video (Google Meet) with Oussama Ammar, former co-founder of TheFamily (the French startup accelerator launched in 2013, which Algolia, PayFit and Captain Train all went through). Price: €300 per session, paid up front on oussamaammar.com/better-call. No subscription, no commitment. Average wait: 2 to 4 weeks.
The math that made me think.
Take a company doing €300,000 in revenue. Your co-founder owns 50%. You sell in five years for €1.5 million. They walk away with €750,000.
Over those five years of running the business, they also drew a monthly salary, annual dividends, probably a company car, maybe premium income protection. Figure €40,000 to €60,000 a year, all in. Over five years, that's €200,000 to €300,000 in direct costs. Plus half the sale price.
On the other side, a Better Call with Oussama Ammar costs €300 per half-hour. Two a month for five years: €36,000. You keep your full salary, your dividends, your shares, your freedom to decide.
Difference over five years, in this scenario: roughly €1 million. And you keep full control of your company.
| Criterion | 50% co-founder | Better Call ×2/month | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct annual cost | €40,000 to €60,000 (salary + perks) | €7,200 | Better Call |
| % equity given up | 30 to 50% | 0% | Better Call |
| Decision-making control | Shared · veto rights | 100% you | Better Call |
| Day-to-day presence | Yes · full time | No · 2× 30 min/month | Co-founder |
| Conflict potential | High · 60% failure at 5 years (BPI/Maddyness) | Near zero | Better Call |
| Exit cost | Buy back shares at current valuation | You just stop | Better Call |
| Complementary skills | Yes if the right profile (CTO, CFO) | No · doesn't do the work | Co-founder |
| Gap over 5 years (€1.5M exit) | ≈ €1M shared + costs | €36,000 total | Better Call |
Score: Better Call 6 · Co-founder 2 — for this specific company profile
What your co-founder actually costs you.
People talk a lot about the share percentage, but that's far from the only cost.
A co-founder means:
- A salary, fully loaded and monthly, whether they work 60 hours or 25
- Dividends every year on profits, including the ones you generated on your own
- Perks (car, phone, income protection, premium health cover)
- Veto rights over the big decisions (fundraising, key hires, pivots)
- Conflicts, sooner or later — over vision, pace, money
- An exit cost if you want to buy them out: their shares at the current valuation
Your co-founder doesn't cost you 50% of your company. They cost you 50% of your company plus your peace of mind.
I lived through this. The first two years, everything works. The third year, you start thinking "why am I carrying all of this alone?". The fourth year, you don't even dare say it out loud anymore.
What a Better Call gave me.
I took two Better Calls with Oussama Ammar. Both times, I showed up with an idea I thought was brilliant. Both times, it got taken apart in 25 minutes. Both times, it was the right call.
The first time, I'd set off on a project I thought I'd studied from every angle. In 10 minutes, Oussama asked the three right questions that made me see my market was too narrow. I walked out with a better grasp of my own subject than after three months of benchmarking on my own.
The second time, same pattern. An idea I'd nursed alone for weeks. In 30 minutes, Oussama pointed out an obvious flaw I couldn't see anymore because I was too deep in it.
What I take from it, in three points:
An outside view beats an internal co-founder who's run out of road
Oussama (who you'll regularly catch on LEGEND or on his own channel) holds no shares in my company. He has no reason to go easy on my ego. He tells me what he thinks.
He's seen hundreds of cases
He's been doing Better Calls for years — a legacy of his time at TheFamily, the accelerator he co-founded. When you lay out a problem, he's already seen five close to it. He tells you how it ended for the others.
Thirty minutes run well beat three hours watered down
When you pay €300, you prepare. You show up with your questions. You don't pad, you don't make small talk.
The three situations where Better Call beats a co-founder.
You're in the building phase, on your own
You're launching your company. You don't need a co-pilot flying next to you 40 hours a week. You need a senior view that tells you "there, you're wrong" twice a month. A Better Call does exactly that.
You're facing a strategic decision that's over your head
You have to call it on a raise, a key hire, a pivot, a sale. Your co-founder probably has a bias in the matter — their shares, their salary, their ego. Oussama has none. He tells you what he thinks, full stop.
You need to be challenged, not validated
A co-founder who's running on fatigue and ego will often tell you "yeah, good idea" because it's comfortable. A Better Call will tell you "no, your market is too small" because they have nothing to lose by being straight with you.
The three situations where a co-founder is still better.
I'm not going to play smart. There are cases where a co-founder beats a Better Call. I'm listing them to be honest.
You need a full-time operational right hand
If you're building a production, retail, or services company that demands daily presence on two fronts at once, a Better Call doesn't replace an operational co-founder. You can't be everywhere at the same time.
You need complementary skills
If you're a developer who hates selling, or a salesperson who can't build the product, you need someone in-house who does what you don't. A Better Call will never replace the CTO coding right next to you.
You need to share the emotional risk
Building a company alone is hard mentally. If you know you'll crack on your own, a co-founder to share the highs and lows with can be vital. It's a human argument, not a business one. It deserves to be heard.
And you, where are you at?
If you're building a company and someone offers to partner up, ask yourself this honestly before you sign:
"Does this person really challenge me, or am I taking on a co-founder because I'm scared of being alone?"
If the honest answer is the second one, pay €600 a month, take two Better Calls, and stay solo. You'll thank yourself in five years.
Honest limits of this opinion
My experience is N=2 Better Calls with a single person (Oussama Ammar) and a single format (30-min sessions). I've never tried other 1-to-1 consultants of the same caliber (Anthony Bourbon, Hasheur advising, etc.) or an advisor with real equity. The €1.5M exit math is a single scenario — it tips in favor of the co-founder as soon as you're aiming for an exit > €10M or your co-founder genuinely brings capital or a network that changes the order of magnitude. Weigh it against your own profile.
I could be wrong. My experience isn't a universal truth. If you've got a counter-example, an opposite story, a nuance to add, write to me. I read everything, I reply.
To dig into the same "build vs pay" theme: Limova vs Claude Code applies exactly the same lens to tech tools (premium no-code vs building it yourself). And to see what a solo company + Claude Code looks like in practice, check out the sales tool I built for Shirley. Both opinion pieces the AI world in 5/10/20 years and China's 2026-2030 plan apply the same "own a contrarian thesis" logic to other subjects.
FAQ Better Call vs co-founder.
Exactly how much does a Better Call cost?
€300 for a 30-minute session, paid up front on oussamaammar.com. No subscription, no commitment. You can book one, two, or none at all. Same price for everyone, no volume discount.
How do you book a Better Call?
On oussamaammar.com/better-call. You pick a slot, pay online, and get a Google Meet link. Wait time: 2 to 4 weeks on average. You can cancel or reschedule up to 24h before.
Who is Oussama Ammar?
Co-founder of TheFamily, the French startup accelerator launched in 2013 (Algolia, PayFit and Captain Train all went through it). He's coached hundreds of French founders. Today he does 1-to-1 advising through Better Call and shows up regularly on LEGEND (Guillaume Pley) and his own YouTube channel. One of the sharpest, most no-nonsense voices in French entrepreneurial advising.
What if my problem is too big for 30 minutes?
You prep harder. The 30-minute limit forces you to frame your question cleanly before the session — half the work is already done. If you need more, book a second Better Call two weeks later with whatever the first one unlocked. You pay €600 total and you keep 100% of your company.
Better Call or an advisor with equity?
Depends on the advisor's caliber. An advisor at 0.5-1% equity over 4 years with vesting can make sense if the person genuinely opens doors (investor intros, customer intros). An advisor who just shares an opinion 1h a month isn't worth the equity. Simple test: if the advisor brings no network and no deals, they're a consultant in disguise. Pay them in cash.
How do you prep a Better Call so it's useful?
Three rules: (1) one main question, framed in a single sentence, the rest as sub-questions. (2) Written context sent 24h ahead (5-10 lines max, not a dossier). (3) Note the 3 decisions you need to walk out with. If you show up with no clear question, you're paying €300 to be told "sharpen your question".
Can you record a Better Call?
Yes, you can record the Google Meet session yourself (with his okay, which he usually gives). Tip: transcribe the audio with an AI afterward (Whisper, Gemini, Claude) so you have usable text. You'll be able to come back to it 6 months later. The best investments are the ones you reread.
I don't have €7,200/year for Better Calls — alternatives?
Three tiers depending on your budget. Free: watch his YouTube appearances (his own channel + LEGEND), take structured notes. Low cost: a one-off Better Call when a major decision comes up (€300 occasionally, not monthly). Mid cost: three Better Calls a year on the real turning points (€900/year). Don't think binary — there are gradients.
What does a co-founder in France really cost beyond the equity?
Beyond the % of equity you give up: a fully-loaded monthly salary (€40,000 to €80,000 gross/year), annual dividends on profits, perks (car, premium health cover, income protection), veto rights on strategic decisions, and the cost of buying them out at the current valuation if you want them gone. Over 5 years with a €1.5M exit, the cumulative gap versus a paid consultant easily hits €1M.
What's the failure rate of co-founder partnerships in France?
According to BPI / Maddyness studies, around 60% of co-founder partnerships fall apart within the first 5 years — disagreement on vision, on pace, on money, or simply lives drifting out of sync. It's the number one cause of French startup failure, ahead of product or market problems. Worth weighing before you sign.
Going further
If you want to dig into the 1-to-1 advising vs partnership question, here are the sources that fed my thinking:
- oussamaammar.com — Oussama's official site with his essays and his Better Calls.
- TheFamily (Wikipedia) — the history of the French accelerator that Algolia, PayFit and Captain Train went through.
- LEGEND (Guillaume Pley) — long-form interviews with Oussama on his advising method and his time at TheFamily.
- Maddyness · Startup — coverage of French partnerships that fall apart and founder trade-offs.
- Anthropic Claude.ai Projects — handy for prepping a Better Call: you load your company context into a project and have Claude brainstorm with you to frame the right question before the session.
- BPI France Création — studies on failure rates and the equity/cash trade-offs in French startups.
Spot a mistake?
Outdated info, a number that's moved, a stale source? Write to me at sagnier.jeremy@gmail.com · I fix it within 48h max and note the update date at the top of the article. Real-world feedback is worth a thousand times more than the articles — I read everything, I reply.
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