I’d just like to offer my thanks for your insightful and extremely helpful opinions.
This article (and blog in general) has been really useful in assisting me gather my thoughts in the search for a co-founder.

Keep up the great work,

Jake.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE PERSON YOU’VE GENERATED YOUR STARTUP IDEA WITH ISN’T THE RIGHT CO-FOUNDER?

In my case, I have developed the idea for my startup with 2 other people. One of them fulfills your set of parameters; the other, however, the business guy, IMHO doesn’t – and here are my thoughts on why:

- he lacks clarity and to-the-pointness
- when I ask about his degree of commitment and understanding as to how demanding a startup can be his answer is that he can & will delegate (a fine skill & answer, but which don’t fit the startup scenario IMHO)

Yet this is the guy who was there from the beginning in elaborating the idea for our product. And in that area he has had good input.

What would you do in such a case?

@Amit – Dave McClure made a great comment on the previous find a badass co-founder post, to the effect of:

date first (i.e. do a sample 3 month project), before you get married.

The problem is always equity… I wouldn’t want to potentially throw even 3 months of my life away without knowing I could seriously trust the co-founder, such that we wouldn’t have to get legal involved & pay a bunch of expensive startup costs.

The questions to ask was a very interesting way to explore different aspects.

On the topic, how does one really know they will gel with someone without working with them or knowing them, that is from a few meetings.

Amit