[dragostudor]

It is important to work with someone that you can trust. Someone that can push through hell together with you and not abandon everything at the smallest bump. It takes a strong character, ambition and sense of urgency. When it comes to non-technical / business people, it might be counter-intuitive, but having attended a good university or having worked for a good company can indicate high intelligence and not entrepreneurial drive. This being said, you can still collaborate with technical people that are comfortable with selling the vision, product and services, can hustle and are reliable.

Also, be careful of non-compete agreements by joining other start-ups.

There are several ways in which you can find good co-founders:

1. Don’t prioritise finding a co-founders, just start building something and reach out to people. They might love what you’re doing and come on-board.

2. Get recommendations via your network about people who want to build a company and have complementary skills / similar goals.

3. Increase your visibility, publish your thoughts, network and debate about the future - randomness / serendipity is a wondrous force

4. Accelerators such as Antler and EF - as a last resort.

I’m also looking for smart, relentless people that want to build a better future for generations to come. Don’t hesitate to reach out via linkedin - username: tudordragos

[dublin]

^^THIS! Trust is THE most important factor. Treat this like finding someone to marry, because (sadly) there's a decent chance your startup could outlast your marriage. (Pay attention to that, BTW! Your family is really important, and unless you've already made a huge mistake, no company is worth losing them over.) Any good/honest partner will be willing to tie equity to milestones - never just toss a big chunk of equity to your CEO/cofounder just because others are stupid enough to do that. (Keep in mind the dictum that in most all startup cos., your equity is simultaneously worthless and the only thing of value the company has, other than your team which is usually there because of the potential for equity. As soon as you're funded, pay people fairly - not top of scale, but enough to keep them happy and loving the job.) And yes, FWIW, I've been on (and been burned on) both sides of these deals, both as a CTO looking for a good CEO to raise money and get us to market (lost my a$$) and as a contract CEO hired to get a company off the ground. The ONLY thing that matters is the people themselves, and more importantly, their character, trustworthiness, and insistence on being fully upright in all things.

It's much harder to find these people than you might think, and it can be really hard to get rid of a bad one if you screw up. (As the Russians say, "Doveryai, no proveryai - Trust, but verify!")