The questions all founders must ask themselves

Values are so incredibly important when it comes to working with people. When you and the people you work with wake up in the morning, not just for the paycheck, but also because you believe in what you're doing, you avoid many of the pitfalls less aligned teams suffer from.

Is it more important to have the best technical person possible, regardless of culture fit? Or, a good technical person who believes what you believe, values what you value, and is a great culture fit? Unless the best are absolutely necessary I would pick the good culture fit any day of the week.

Had I answered questions like the ones in the article with previous co-founders we would have saved some bad experiences and likely iterated to success much faster.

Excellent set of questions to ask, not just for founders, I think, but when you join any company. Too often new grads are just happy to get that offer letter and jump right in, without giving much thought to the culture of the company they are joining (I, for one, was one such clueless hire).

Also brought he mind the following, from Illusions:

  The simplest questions are the most profound.

      Where were you born?
      Where is your home?
      Where are you going?
      What are you doing? 

  Think about these once in a while, and watch your answers change.