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Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

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Re: Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

#31

Post by superasn »

Speaking from my own personal experience, the most important thing about your co-founder is that she must be good at things you're not. If both of you are good at the same things then you're probably doing it wrong.

Also like that e-myth book, make sure whatever roles you're going to be taking, it is in writing and there is no confusion about who is doing what. This is especially important when the day comes and you have to take a big decision about your company and she sees differently than you.

Re: Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

#32

Post by ovatsug25 »

alanwells wrote: post #4

Some topics worth exploring that I've seen become areas of co-founder conflict: * When faced with a difficult decision and incomplete information, how do you decide what course of action to take? Can you talk through a real life example of a situation like this? * Let's assume we decide to be co-founders and start this company together. What kinds of things would cause you to want/need to leave the company you helped…

Super helpful! Thank you. :)

Re: Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

#33

Post by ovatsug25 »

andrewtbham wrote: post #10

I recommend meeting some people they know family, friends, old colleagues.

Great and simple idea. I actually LOVE her fiancé from our brief interaction. They had me over for dinner days after meeting and were super awesome. :)

Re: Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

#34

Post by ovatsug25 »

LgWoodenBadger wrote: post #23
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The straightforward though not necessarily reliable way to get a basic read on this is how they treat the waiter in a restaurant. Maybe conspire with said waiter to minorly screw up their meal service once or twice.

This is what the CEO of Schwab does, or did. http://www.businessinsider.com/charles-schwab-ceo-takes-job-...

Fantastic article. Have the restaurant screw with the person for you so you can test their reaction. Thinking of other places where this might apply—maybe putting an extra 5 on one side of the bench press?

Re: Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

#35

Post by ovatsug25 »

tacon wrote: post #21
tacon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clint Eastwood was on some talk show long ago, and he was asked about relationships, girlfriends, etc. He said he tests potential girlfriends by going on a three-hour driving trip. If they still have anything to talk about at the end of three hours, they have potential. I think that would apply very well to cofounders, too.

And a simple test of how well two founders work together is to take a two-person canoe down a course that demands teamwork. Be sure to switch off who is front and back. I've seen couples descend into cat fights in a canoe.

Great idea!

Re: Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

#36

Post by ovatsug25 »

jamesgagan wrote: post #5
jbob2000 wrote: post #2

One that I wished I asked, knowing my situation now: "If either one of us loses interest and wants to move on, how can we handle the situation?"

this site helps answer that one: http://www.backofanapkin.co.nz/start

Amazing website! Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

#38

Post by valuearb »

brianwawok wrote: post #29
valuearb wrote: post #24

Number one thing is discussing the equity split and what happens if one of you quits. I have a friend who helped start someone selling a breakfast product. The plan was my friend would invest $20k and the partner would run it as a local business, and they'd split 50-50. Very quickly my friend got excited by the potential and started working full time to help, ends up investing hundreds of thousands of dollars, doing…

Just because your friend botched his LLC us no reason not to use one. LLC can be fantastic. You think if they were a c corp 50/50 day one the break up would have been any better?

Well it would have been far easier to offer employees stock options, and far easier to raise financing. And faster and easier to codify a different split when his partner was amenable to it.

Tech Investors hate LLCs cause they hate K1 forms.

Re: Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

#39

Post by raarts »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #22
seanmcelroy wrote: post #13

The most important element, in my opinion, is one that single questions alone cannot discern: Is this person a workplace psychopath? I'm not kidding, and this is a real issue. A lot of people who can be great entrepreneurs can also have detrimental effects on your culture, the trust of your clients, and your long-term sustainability. Drive, initiative, passion, aptitude - these are qualities present in great founders…

The straightforward though not necessarily reliable way to get a basic read on this is how they treat the waiter in a restaurant. Maybe conspire with said waiter to minorly screw up their meal service once or twice.

I'm afraid this doesn't say much. I've worked with two co founders, one of which is a psychopath and the other isn't. The first one I've never seen treat waiters badly, and the other multiple times. But the first one turned out to be the psycho.

Watch out for people only living for themselves, not caring whatever they say as long as they get their way, trying to manipulate people intentionally. Look out for the ones that have no skill other than extortion, putting pressure. That always put work on others so they can never take blame. People who never apologize, and never admit they're wrong.

Those are the ones you'll want to avoid. Also always trust your gut.

Re: Ask HN: What questions did you ask (or wish you asked) your cofounder?

#40

Post by brianwawok »

valuearb wrote: post #38
brianwawok wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because your friend botched his LLC us no reason not to use one. LLC can be fantastic. You think if they were a c corp 50/50 day one the break up would have been any better?

Well it would have been far easier to offer employees stock options, and far easier to raise financing. And faster and easier to codify a different split when his partner was amenable to it. Tech Investors hate LLCs cause they hate K1 forms.

Converting LLC to S/C corp is not hard though! Your entire chain of evidence was about two founders who had very different commitment levels, and had trouble converting. Of course they had trouble converting. They also would have had trouble diluting for investment if you did not dilute 50/50. There was an underlying problem there, and the corp conversion was the rip the bandaid off moment. It had to happen, and the sooner it happened the better!

Unless you know day 1 you are going to get investment (like, that is your entire goal of your business - say you already have ycom ready to invest), I still contest you should almost always start LLC. If say you putz around and bootstrap for a year, your taxes and accounting and everything else will be SO MUCH EASIER for the first year. Then sure, if you light on fire and need investments from traditional VCs, cool you can convert. What % of random startups founded on hacker news get to the point of VC investment? My gut would tell me 10% or less, but no idea how to measure this.

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