13 Questions (and Answers) to Find the Perfect Co-founder

The right co-founder can have an astronomical impact on whether your startup succeeds or fails.

Since it's the biggest determinant of your startup’s success — it makes sense to conduct significant due diligence before committing to a years-long partnership.

Here are the 13 questions I ask every potential partner. Hope this helps early-stage founders in their co-founder dating journey:

What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses? How do you try to compensate for them?
How would your co-workers describe what it’s like to work with you?
How do you cope with stress? Depression? Are there any red flags I can help watch out for?
In an ideal world, how many hours/week are you willing to work? What sounds good? What sounds like hell?
What would you want your role to be before we reach product/market fit?
How much money should we raise? (i.e. “zero” or “as much as we can”)… when do you think is the right time or cadence to bring in outside investment?
What does an ideal company exit look like to you?
Why do you want to start a company — and why right now?
What is your personal runway? What is the minimum salary you need to survive or be comfortable?
In every partnership, there are times when a partner might breed resentment if certain dissatisfactions don’t change over time. How would you deal with a situation like this?
How would you think about bringing on a third (or N+1) cofounder? If yes, when would be the right time?
What type of progress would you need to see to fully commit? Do you have a target timeline for when you need to observe this?
Reference Checks: are there two people you’ve worked with that can speak on your potential as a founder?

Where can we learn more about early-stage founder lessons?

I'm active on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Here's Supademo, the startup I'm currently building.