Choose wisely

The ex-CEO of Zipcar goes to Ford. Plus 7 rules for new business partners and another 7 things I think are worth reading today.

I’m Bill Murphy Jr. Welcome to Understandably. Thanks for reading.

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I saw a story over the weekend: The former CEO of Zipcar is taking over the autonomous vehicle unit at Ford.

The mere mention of that company — Zipcar, not Ford — reminds me of a key to success that I’ve had to learn and relearn a few times:

Who you choose to partner with is important — often even more important than what it is that you partner on.

An idea over coffee

It goes back to an interview I did with the original co-founder and CEO of Zipcar, Robin Chase, in about 2010.

She and her co-founder, Antje Danielson, dreamed up the idea for a pay-by-the-hour car rental service in a 1998 chat over coffee in Cambridge, Mass. It was a groundbreaking idea at the time.

But Chase and Danielson had never worked on anything together before. They knew each other mainl…