Ask HN: What Are the Qualities to Look for in a Co-Founder?

6 points·motohagiography··4 comments

If you were looking for a co-founder and knew 30-40 people, what 3-5 personal qualities would you use as criteria to stack rank them as options? Given those, what is one dealbreaker?

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1. Honesty / integrity / transparency 2. Grit / persistence 3. Openness to feedback / help / learning / collaboration 4. Ability to adapt to changing circumstances 5. Communicates effectively - listens, conveys ideas well in writing and when speaking 6. Kindness / empathy / reasonable expectations about projects / companies / start ups, customers, you, themselves, etc. 7. Reliability 8. Complements your weaknesses and key strengths. Is valuable to the business you're trying to build together at an early stage. Knows the space, how to build companies, how to code, design, sell, something valuable early - or, they can learn fast.

Look at their track record, or lack thereof.

Easy for non-technical co-founders especially to talk big. Also, talk to users or co-founders that worked with them, and under them.

Ethical, high-caliber, genuinely nice with a high degree of empathy. Bonus points if they've lived without the benefit of a silver spoon their entire life.

Unfortunately you can't really determine these quickly, you pretty much have to know the person first. Public or second-hand reputation unfortunately isn't always trustworthy.

Trust is one of the more important and obvious traits. I also think versatility is critical too. Someone who doesn't want to do something because "it is the other person's job" It's important for all cofounders to be willing to do what is necessary for the business to be a success.

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