15 Questions to Ask a Potential Co-Founder
https://tertle.io/blog/15-questions-to-ask-a-potential-co-founder
Updated link:
https://tertle.io/blog/15-questions-to-ask-a-potential-co-founder
Wrote my first blog post finally. Constructive feedback welcome!
More to come in a bid to start writing more content inbetween product stuff!
I've read beteween the lines here from your first message @petrosz - that these aren't 'Top' questions (of course that is completley subjective). That much I agree with and I've in turn removed the word 'Top' from the title.
I see you're listing out all the reasons why you shouldn't ask each question (the problem), what I'm looking for is solutions (what you deem as 'correct').
What might help is if I list out the intent of a couple of those as opposed to the exact words or framing of the quesiton.
What gets you up in the morning?
What I want to learn: What motivates them starting with a playful informal question
What does an ideal exit look like to you?
What I want to learn: Are they looking for a quick exit get rich quick scheme or are they in it for the long haul?
What are some founders, products or companies you admire and why?
What I want to learn: Who/what they see as role models which can be a good indicator of who or what they strive to create or be
Where should our startup be based?Why?
What I want to learn: Getting conensus on remote/office/hybrid working early and their rationale for that decision (leans into a culture discussion too)
If your dream company was operational today and one of the employees was asked to describe the culture, what would they say?
What I want to learn: What they deem as 'good' culture which can inform how they might run a company. The skills as I mentioned in the beginning of the blog post would be focused as a separate post to come in the future.
That said, based on the 'What I want to learn' first - do you agree these are good things to learn? If not, why not? If so, how would you frame the questions?
Cheers
I agree with what you say to some extent, but is it really as simple as you say?
No, there are many things to consider in starting a business, and it may take you a long time just to get the market wrong
I'm not sure I understand what you mean @ellyy. I think you might be referring to how to get to product-market fit? If so, I think thats a different topic to finding someone who's the right fit in helping you ultimately climb that hill (outside of skills/experience).
What you say is quite right. I can't agree with you more.
If possible, I hope to make friends with you
yep, those questions are thoroughly wrong. Currently in the process of 'co-founder dating' and that is not at all the approach that is working for me.
Feel free to share your insights @bodovoet
What has/has not worked for you?
ok, to be fair, I appreciate that your list of questions is for guidance, and applicable over an extended period of 'co-founder dating'.
Having said this, I found that I rarely get past the 2nd 'date', and I would describe the obstacle being the lack of a true sense of urgency and force to go make/build something.
I would argue that the questions are missing the factor of time, which is precious. In whichever way it may unfold, and whether or not they are already individually working on an idea, the focus of any guidance should be on providing the tools for continuously gauging the sense of urgency and commitment to launching into the unknown and build something amazing.
Personally, I found so many bad reasons, and maybe there should be a list of those, to help spot 'time wasters' -- I say so politely, hinting that one's amateur-level interest in startups does not make a good co-founder, at the detriment of precious time and effort of those that are truly committed.
Thanks for sharing this @bodovoet! Very insightful. Don't suppose you'd be free some time for a quick chat/video call to talk a bit more in-depth?
I signed up for tertle, let's take it from there.
how is that crap below, top 15 have no idea, but people that ask these types of questions at first interviews are either scamming you, attempting to recruit you to be part of a scam, are 16 years old and do not know better.
At best case scenario that will be a well-meaning moron that will spend all of the investor's money on the wrong things and create a team of like-minded "bros" that definitely have no intention of actually working (as they don't understand the meaning of the word)
the stupid/terrible/idiotic bunch to save the time of actually following the link and reading true the marketing crap:
Q: - What gets you up in the morning?
A: no words
Q: - What does an ideal exit look like to you and in what time frame?
A: you are asking someone you hope to join you in what probably will be the hardest thing they have ever done, do they want to Exit it, really?
Q: - What are some founders, products or companies you admire and why?
A: that is definitely a teenage question "who is your crush? I hope is the same as mine"
Q: - Where should our start up be based? Why?
A: Again, no words
Q: - If your dream company was operational today and one of the employees was asked to describe the culture, what would they say?
A: really, this is top 15 question, not qualifications, not ways to help build the thing, not skills, you will ask for the culture of the "dream" company
Q: - What is your philiosophy on work life balance and how might this change over the lifescycle of the company?
A: you do not want to go into partnership with people that ask you these types of questions, the idea is that you are getting together to build something, philosophy can wait when you have more money than sense or you are too drunk to do something else. (unless the startup is about philosophy, but that is not the meaning of the "question")
Q: - What is your take on what sets successful and unsuccessful startups apart?
A: again, this is top 15 questions for a cofounder, only applicable when you talking to actual investors and owners of companies with a lot of experience in success and failure not even top 100 question, (you will not have the chance to ask this question to a person that can really answer it as you will be thrown out by question 3 before you get the chance to get to this one)
Q: - Would working on a new venture be your primary activity? Will that change over the next year? 5 years?
A: how exactly you expecting anyone to know what will happen with a startup or someone's life in the next 5y or how it is going to change their life (this is more of a pyramid scheme or a religious sect question)
Q: - How should founder equity be split? Why?
A: that is definitely more idiotic than most, equal shares or split dependent on investment/risk for the involved parties, or the idea is to see if someone is undervaluing themselves so you can taka advantage?
Q: - What would it take for you to feel truly partnered in this venture?
A: not asking questions like this as that implies you will not actually be a partner or worse, someone is looking for a way to make you think you are a partner.
As a co-founder of a business that has been running for 5+ years, has ~15 employees, and where we did not know each other going into the business, and we get along well... I disagree with almost all of your points and if I were to give someone advice it looks like the virtual opposite of what you posted 😅
I don't think the questions are the best questions ever, but the motivation, like @tertle posted in another comment, is good.
In particular, it seems you're very focused on getting something built quickly. But in reality, if a co-founder relationship is going to be successful, you will likely be working with each other for many years. If you can't stand each other and don't see eye-to-eye on many things, you will probably have a bad time.
Examples I disagree with:
What does an ideal exit look like to you and in what time frame?
Yes, you both need to recognize the likelihood of the business taking many years to cultivate something valuable, but you also need to prepare for that too. If one of you wants this to be the last business they ever work for, and one of them wants to cash out, they're going to be forced to make one of them unhappy at some point in the future. Should this deter them from starting together? Debatable. Should they know about it going in? Absolutely.
Would working on a new venture be your primary activity? Will that change over the next year? 5 years?
I think this sets the expectations for equity split. If one founder is working on this full time with a ramen budget and the other is full-time at another company, they have clearly different workloads. Should they split the equity the same? This sets expectations and is important to having the other co-founder not feeling shafted in the situation.
What is your philosophy on work life balance and how might this change over the lifecycle of the company?
I wouldn't prioritize asking this question, but I do think it's useful. If you're not on the same page, it can be difficult to lead the employees. If one of you is gung-ho, work day-night type, pushing employees to do so, it is going to be very difficult for the other, more flexible co-founder, to preach the same. They'll either stay silent or have to talk to employees behind the scenes about what to do.
This is great thanks @wetoastfood. Will be updating/iterating on the content based on these conversations.
questions 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15 are ranging from stupid, to terrible to outright idiotic, as run as far as possible from a person that is asking them idiotic
please do not give such terrible advice, less experienced people may actually think is real and not just a marketing trick.
Thanks for your constructive reply @petrovn. Care to elaborate on why you think they're stupid? And perhaps provide an alternative example of a question you think is 'not stupid'? Cheers