Evaluating potential co-founders? Try going camping.

Vladimir Vysotsky, Song about a friend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN0YzyUEhbo

Original version, without subtitles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xO_FWR1z8

Lyrics at http://bit.ly/cxpOJd

Make sure all the co-founders are on the trip. Anyone remember a Unix workstation company from the early '80s named Callan Data Systems? David Callan was one of three equal founders, so one might wonder how it came the bear just his name.

The three founders were all ready to incorporate. All that was holding them up was the name for the company. They were just unable to come to a consensus. After much discussion with no progress, two of the founders went away for a weekend hunting trip. David did not go with them.

When they got back, he told them he'd went ahead and filed the papers, and the company was named Callan Data Systems. I believe he told them this was just meant to be temporary so they could move ahead, and it could be changed later once they agreed on the "real" name--but of course they were never able to agree on a "real" name, so it stayed "Callan Data Systems".

I met my wife while on camping trip to the Himalayas. Of the 4 women in the group, 3 married people they met for the first time on that trip. Anecdote, rather than hard data, of course. You could always claim that high-altitude made my wife's decision making suspect - hence she's saddled with me.

I've found this also works well for evaluating boyfriends