| Things to look for: 1. How much automata & does the founding team 'care' about technical best practices which will ultimately determine the operational cost of the systems & organization/ type of people to hire. (Do I want to work with the type of people the company is going to need to hire) 2. Do the co-founder(s) understand their market, do they have Realistic & Achievable plan, including visual 'mock ups' of any key behaviors of features, can they articulate the vision to me or will I have discretion on how to implement. I stay away from dubious social science, psychology, anything that is described as "the next xyz" 3. What is the equity structure being offered & compensation relative to the market opportunity (i.e. "how likely are we going to be an exit"). What is the market size, do we have customer #1 (and #2 .. etc.) in mind, a sales strategy, avoid a field of dreams "build it and they will come" mentality. Fwiw, I have a horrible track record finding co-founders.
I prefer odd # of person startups. I don't ever do 50/50 anymore, its always 49/51 or 49.99 and 50.01 whatever it's never 50/50 by contract. One person is 'the decider' I always offer them the 51 but that balance might flip in my favor if they don't deliver on mutually agreed achievable KPI's, sort of like side-bets, and this equity percentage can move a lot at the early stages but it keeps everybody focused. If feelings and egos are going to be bruised I'd rather find out early, if they are going to be greedy and try and screw me later I'd rather not engage at all. |