There seems to have been a spurt of recent posts of non-tech co-founders asking how to find tech co-founders, but I'd like the pose the question from the other side.
As a tech person how do you evaluate a non-tech person as a potential co-founder ?
I recently met someone with a marketing background at a startup weekend style event, and we chatted a bit about cofounding, but I'm at bit of a loss as how to decide if it's a good idea or not.
On one side they're clearly smart and get things done, our skill sets seem to be quite complementary and we get on.
On the other hand from what I've seen on HN people generally seem to have a negative attitude towards non-tech cofounders, is it justified ? - what should I be looking out for and taking into consideration ?
5 points: Has been in executive team at a startup before
5 points: Has been involved in raising capital at a startup before, or is 1-degree from a VC or a few angels (real 1-degree not Twitter/LinkedIn 1-degree)
5 points: Has been in product marketing, biz dev, ad sales at a startup before
5 points: can and will write code
4 points: can get shit done, is well-organized and understands the software development process as opposed to say, selling and shipping widgets
2 points: Has been in product management at a startup before
2 points: Has worked in any biz role at a large tech company and rose to some form of executive post
-5 points: Has an MBA and has only worked at Hedge fund, Consulting company, or iBank
-5 points: Is an idea person and has never shipped a real product.
Your ideal person will score above 10 and close to 20 points on this test.