

Things To Consider In Choosing Co-Founders - yotamros
http://blog.earbits.com/online_radio/5-things-to-consider-in-choosing-co-founders/

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p4bl0
> Just like you wouldn’t get married to someone you’ve just met, you shouldn’t
> get into a long term partnership with someone you don’t know well enough.

This is IMHO by far the most important thing said in this article. I always
find it strange when I see website proposing to match you with a co-founders
or people looking for a co-founder by asking HN for instance. It's like asking
on your blog "Hey readers! Anyone would like to marry me, I have an awesome
idea about how we could raise our kids!".

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turoczy
Cultural fit--and company culture in general--is something I rarely see
mentioned. And yet, it's critical to a startup's potential for success. No
matter how you define that culture, it needs to be defined. And your founders
and employees need to share a similar commitment to that culture. Really glad
to see it highlighted here as one of the five.

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EECS
That's an ironic comment to make considering I always hear people bring it up.

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turoczy
Agree people are always talking about it. But they're rarely doing a decent
job of defining the culture, adhering to it, and hiring to it.

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auganov
It's great to define organizational culture, but let's keep in mind that it is
bound to be very fluid in a new startup. When you're very small each new
person will have a pretty significant effect on the culture of your
organization (of course the marginal effect of each new worker would be
diminishing). Over-defining it at the beginning could be a mistake in so
creativity-intensive industries like hacking.

I'd actually take an approach of formally defining the culture once it has
established itself (and is working well).

But well, there's still too many variables to consider. Personal culture of
the founder(s) would be very important in picking the right approach. Although
many people would like it to be，I don't see management becoming a hard science
anytime soon.

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turoczy
I didn't mean to imply that you had to have the culture baked on day 1. But by
the time you've moved beyond cofounders and are making hires, you better be
well on your way to having it defined. Or you're doomed to wallow in misfits
and repairing poor hires instead of moving rapidly.

And I totally agree that the founders drive and define the culture. It's their
responsibility to establish it, manage it, and change it, if need be.

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skmurphy
Complementary skills and experience are always high on my list of what to look
for in a partner or co-founder.

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known
<http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/pair.html> principles may help

