Want to be my co-founder?

As some of you may know, I’ve spent the past few months actively looking to become a technical co-founder of a company. This time has been some of the most enjoyable of my career as I’ve had the opportunity to chat to a bunch of really smart and passionate people, whether they are founders with an existing idea, potential co-founders, or investors. Earlier this week, I had the chance to hang with Charlie O'Donnell and he asked me if I had formalized the qualities I truly value in a co-founder? Sure, I had some loose answers swimming around in my head, but I left that meeting wanting to put real thought into it. Here’s what I came up with:

• Someone who has the ability, and perhaps even inclination, to be self-deprecating. To me, this is the purest signal of not taking oneself too seriously and humility.
• Someone who has a genuine intellectual curiosity. When they don’t know what a word means or how something works (especially if it’s completely unrelated to their field), it becomes their mission to get an answer.
• Someone who has world-class skills in their craft and has spent a lot of time (i.e. years) honing it. Oh, and continues to do so.
• Someone who demonstrably cares about making the world a more equitable place. He/she can not only explain why it’s meaningful to them, but can tangibly show how he/she is doing their part to make things better.
• Someone who’s obsessive about making something perfect, but not obsessive about doing it their way. It’s who they call a “winner” in sports — someone who just wants to win and doesn’t care about style points or who gets the credit.
• Someone who can consistently make me laugh (which as my friends can attest to, isn’t the hardest feat in the world to accomplish :) ). There’s going to be plenty of rough days ahead and alcohol can only be so effective!
• Someone who has an insanely close relationship with their family. I’m a firm believer that if you do, you’ve achieved real perspective on life, how frail all of this is, and that loved ones need to be cherished. That stuff is really important to me and hopefully is to you.

As helpful as this was for me, if the above describes you (or someone you know) and you’re possibly interested in starting something together, I’d love to hear from you at karthik.senthil@gmail.com !