[gigamon]

I agree with comments from other posters. The only two things that I would add are that ...

1) you don't need to like someone to work with them in a startup.

In fact, it is very important that you surround yourself with people who have complementary skills and have different lifetime experience and perspective. As a result, it is difficult to truly like someone who is that different.

But you must respect someone in order to work with them in a startup.

2) Trust is very important.

But trust has a different meaning in a startup. Imagine yourself having to jump off a baloney and one of your co-founders is the one who needs to catch you to save your life. In this case, trust means trusting their ability to catch you and their assessment of their ability to catch you. So if you ask "can you catch me?" and they say "yes" but in reality they can't, then you would rather that they say "no". That way, at least you would try to find alternative.

[derefr]

Oddly, to "jump off a baloney" seems to somehow more accurately represent the startup process than jumping off a balcony, which you possibly meant to type. (Oddly similar to "living on a smile and a shoeshine", as well.)