We asked three of our 886 partners this question:
What criteria should founders consider when selecting their co-founder? Are there particular traits or skills that are more critical?
Charles Huang — Co-founder of RedOctane
I think it's important to find a co-founder who can hustle (hustle = build + sell). You need people who can build things quickly and cost efficiently. And you need people who can sell things to different customers or partners. If you have these 2 qualities in your founding team, you have a shot to find PM Fit before you run out of runway.
Kai Huang — Co-founder of RedOctane
A co-founder should have your same level of enthusiasm, dedication, willingness to sacrifice, and be as open mindedness as you. If a co-founder can’t match you in any of these categories, it will be very difficult to work together long term, especially when one co-founder thinks they are doing more than another. Also, they should balance out the team so that if you’re technical than you want to find at least 1 business co-founder.
Joseph Hei — Co-founder of OrbitBaby
One comment here is that if you’re truly “co” founders, then they are choosing you as much as you are choosing them. Otherwise you’re just hiring them. Another is that an underrated quality I think co-founders need is the attitude and approach that they are trying to build on your ideas and efforts, and vice versa, and not trying to find holes or problems or blockers on what you’re doing. I think that latter attitude is unfortunately surprisingly common in corporate settings, where even leaders are often essentially working against each other for their own perceived career ends. Or it could just be that they are naturally pessimistic. I think startup cofounders need to have an everyday “yes, and…” approach, and fundamentally be optimistic that things can be done. Lastly, the reality is that there are probably more stories of dramatic problems that happened with founding teams, than smooth stories. We all know the famous blow ups. I do think that you need to go into it knowing that when you’re working that hard, it’s very possible that things will go badly in the relationship. You might end up still building a successful business together, but there’s always the risk that you need to be at peace with, even if it hopefully never happens.