tl;dr

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Intro

When I vet co-founder prospects for my coming startup, I gauge their potential against a rubric consisting of the 3 Cs:

• Capability: Reflects their aptitude to be a strong founder, agnostic of the team.
• Complementarity: Refers to the knowledge and skill gaps they fill to form a complete founding team.
• Compatibility: Judging whether the other person shares your values, garners mutual respect, and is fun to work with.

Compatibility is the hardest to measure. Startup culture has studied the makeup of capable and skilled founders, ad nauseum. But comparatively less has been written about compatibility. That’s not surprising. Compatibility is highly personal, and differs from founder to founder, team to team.

Having been through the startup gauntlet, I’ve sharpened my understanding on what qualifies someone as compatible, for me. In this piece, I’m not going to retread the well-beaten path of the traits of a bonafide founder. Instead of I’ll discuss the normative things I believe make someone fit to be my co-founder.

I’m always learning, especially about myself, so treat this as a living document, subject to additions and changes.

Values

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Conclusion

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