#business # [[Epistemic status]] #shower-thought #to-digest # Related - [[Human discovery]] # Cofounder interview https://joinhampton.com/blog/the-template-that-made-sure-my-co-founder-and-i-were-perfect-partners ### OLD >A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship. >~ [[John Rockefeller - John D. Rockefeller on Making Money Advice and Words of Wisdom on Building and Sharing Wealth|John Rockefeller]] Bunch of question to check if both parties can be on the same boat (opinionated) 1. **Why do you want to do this startup?  What are your personal goals here, both financial and non-financial?** 2. **What will our roles and titles be? How will we divide responsibilities? Who will be CEO?** Roles inevitably change a lot over time, but you should have a plan for what you’ll each work on for the first 6-12 months, and decide on who will be the CEO (and what the CEO’s responsibilities are). 3. **How will we split up equity?** It’s important to resolve this one early. This [section](https://yc.link/10-questions-cf-equity) of the co-founder matching manual may help. 4. **Where will the company be based? Where will we each live? Will we work together in-person or remotely?** 5. **What idea will we work on? If that idea doesn’t work out, are you willing to change the idea? Are you only interested in working on ideas in certain areas?** 6. **What needs to happen for each of us to go full-time (quit other jobs or school commitments)?** I.e., We’d have to raise at least $xx from investors, we’d need to validate the idea with a paying customer, we’ll do it if we’re enjoying working together in two months. Obviously, this is N/A if you are both full-time already. 7. **What is your personal financial situation? Are you willing to work for free and live on your savings? For how long? If you'll need a salary to work on this full-time (either now or at some point), how much do you need to feel comfortable?  Will either of us put money into the company?** 8. **What will our typical working schedule be (what days we work, what hours / day, etc)?  How long do we want to keep that up?  Are there any things outside of work that are important to you to make time for?** 9. **If we are successful enough to get to build a team of employees, are there things that are important to you about how we do that?  I.e., building an in-person vs remote company, having certain cultural values, having a particular approach to hiring or managing people?** It’s fine if you don’t have strong opinions on this yet. 10. **What will we do if we’re having trouble agreeing on an important decision?  What will happen if we decide we don’t want to work together anymore?** I believe relationships must necessarily start personal, then "professional" (I don't like this word, there is no such thing as professional for the entrepreneur, everything is a game to him) https://cofounders.gust.com/ - what is wealth? are you interested in wealth? Why? - What did you learn recently? - What kind of [[Information|information]] do you consume on a daily basis? - [[Warren Buffett]] goals: - what are you top 25 life goals? just take the 5 most important and do not spend the single second on the 20 others. So what are your 5 goals? ## Grid of expectations Make a Google sheet with column "founder a, b, c, d" and row - Working style - Hygiene factors - Ambition & motivation - Founder compensation; equity; decision making - Team & culture - Idea development # External links https://www.entrepreneur.com/starting-a-business/date-your-co-founders-before-you-marry-them/367542 # To sort * A complementary temperament * Different operational skills * Similar work habits * Self-sufficient * A history of working together * Emotional buoyancy * Total honesty * Comfort in her own skin * A personality you like * The same overall vision Is this someone who you trust to: 1: Lead a town hall presentation in front of 100s of employees? 2: Represent the company well in front of any audience? 3: Communicate with high integrity through major disagreements? 4: Commit to serious ongoing personal growth? 5: Stay committed through the toughest times? ## new 210623 - what do you find yourself regularly doing on saturday morning? - What did you learn recently? - What have you been curious about lately? - What are the websites you spend the most time on? - What do you usually do on the evening? - What do you usually do on the weekend? - Ever done a startup? What hapenned? - Ever had co-founder(s) issues? - If you had to come up with 3 words to describe the culture you want to create, what would they be? - What are your respective personal goals for a startup? - If you had to give 3 variables that you use to rank a start-up you would work on, what it would be, with their weight? (example: people in the startup can do handstand 0.9) - What do you do for the birthday of your parents? ## 070923 - what would make us divorce? ## 200324 - Dating cofounders is like romantic dating, everyone should be confident, non-needy, not over-invested/reliant on the other, and independent, as [[Mark Manson - Models - Attract Women Through Honesty|Mark Manson]] says it well, or [[Jiddu Krishnamurti - On Love and Loneliness|Jiddu Krishnamurti in On Love and Loneliness]]. Is your potential cofounder needy, craving, thirsty for you?