The Quest for the ideal CEO-type Co-Founder
For the last 15 months, after I’ve folded my previous startup, I’ve been looking for a CEO-type co-founder to launch my next big project with. At the root of this search was the realization that I didn’t want to be both CTO and CEO anymore, and that for a potential idea to be able to scale, I’d need to team up with someone who’d complete me in fields such as networking, doing PR, raising money, and closing sales (all of which I’m interested in, but realize they’re not my fortes).
In 15 months, I’ve met with more than 30 CEO-type people who could potentially fit the bill. I’ve been meeting with people from a variety of backgrounds but who had at least a certain amount of experience in business, a good sense of marketing, and some knowledge of technology or startups. I’ve met people from direct referrals from my connections, from my past gigs (I’ve been a public servant as well as a consultant), and through entrepreneurial events. Finally, I met potential co-founders in my hometown of Paris, France as well as in London.
Here are my insights into finding an “ideal” CEO-type person to found your next startup with, as well as an attempt at a framework on how to choose them.
1. Is a Good Hustler
The first trait of a CEO you’ll be looking for, is their ability to hustle. Now, lots of business people pretend they hustle, but they need to hustle efficiently. For example, they need to be good at talking to the press, launching a product through PR and public speaking gigs. If you want to launch a B2B startup, then the CEO is going to have to be a good sales person as well.
The thing is, the best predictor of the ability to hustle is the track record – whether they’ve launched a startup, raised money or closed large deals before.
2. Appreciates Tech
Which brings us to our second trait: they should appreciate the importance of tech in launching a successful tech company.
First, I should say that I’ve been looking for an opportunity to be a “real” co-founder, i.e. someone with significant equity (not 5%).
I’ve met with a few very talented CEOs with good previous exits, looking to start their next ventures – many of them seemed to underestimate the importance of tech (even though they’re looking to launch tech startups), and they often won’t be looking for co-founders with significant implication in the startup. This is especially true if they had good previous exits.
3. Has Good Ideas
Finally, there’s what I’m calling the Idea Match: you’re looking for someone who either has a startup idea that you can be passionate about, or who will rally around your own startup idea and get passionate about it.
This one is controversial, because most founder matching programs or events focus on this one particular point. If you’re interested in Online ads, or Social gaming, or any other sub-field of Tech, chances are you’ll mostly meet potential co-founders who’ve explicitly registered an interest in those fields as well. My point is, it’s only one trait of a potential co-founder, it shouldn’t necessarily be the most important.
How to weight these three features
If your potential CEO has those three features, they’re the proverbial unicorn.
Otherwise, how do you ponder each of these traits in order to operationally be able to decide whether or not to team up with them?
For me, the #1 trait is their appreciation of technology – this is what will keep the founders’ relationship balanced in the long run. And many strategic choices will come from this common view of yours. Next up are the “classic” CEO/hustler qualities. Finally, the #3 trait for me is the match between your respective ideas.
What are your own priorities and how do you rank them?
