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What We Look for in Founders

paulgraham.com

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Re: What We Look for in Founders

#51

Post by edanm »

pg wrote: post #45
edanm wrote: post #13

2 questions on the "friendship" issue: 1. How do you judge whether co-founders are good friends? I'm guessing a simple "how long have they been working together" test is a good indication, but anything else? 2. What level of feedback do you usually give teams that didn't make it? Especially teams that got to the interview stage but didn't make it through? I'm wondering if you've ever told a team your suspicions that…

There are a lot of ways. Many of the questions on the YC application are at least partially about this. When and how did the founders meet? What have they worked on together? Even the stock split sometimes tells us a lot. Yes, we've told groups that we weren't funding them because their friendship didn't seem strong enough to withstand a startup. You'd be surprised some of the meltdowns we've seen in interviews.

Do you mostly care about groups sticking together long enough to get to profitability? Or are you also concerned about the founders having the same mindset?

Re: What We Look for in Founders

#52

Post by kmak »

Running back comment is somewhat amusing, if only because a recent article on ESPN said that Chris Johnson's total yardage is down because he's always aiming for the HR, thus lowering his average yardage, trying to find and create space that aren't available.

I guess sometimes you got to take what they give you, but for YC they aim only for the HR, so it's not that relevant.

Re: What We Look for in Founders

#53

Post by robg »

pg wrote: post #45
edanm wrote: post #13

2 questions on the "friendship" issue: 1. How do you judge whether co-founders are good friends? I'm guessing a simple "how long have they been working together" test is a good indication, but anything else? 2. What level of feedback do you usually give teams that didn't make it? Especially teams that got to the interview stage but didn't make it through? I'm wondering if you've ever told a team your suspicions that…

There are a lot of ways. Many of the questions on the YC application are at least partially about this. When and how did the founders meet? What have they worked on together? Even the stock split sometimes tells us a lot. Yes, we've told groups that we weren't funding them because their friendship didn't seem strong enough to withstand a startup. You'd be surprised some of the meltdowns we've seen in interviews.

Is there a meaningful difference between friends who decide to do a startup together versus folks who decide to do a startup together and then become friends? The highest profile successes seem to be more an instance of the latter, but then success seems to help smooth any differences of opinion.

Re: What We Look for in Founders

#54

Post by pg »

jdp23 wrote: post #50

> They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter. or more accurately, "not the rules we think matter".

If you wanted to be that accurate, you could prepend "I think" to every statement in every essay written. That's implicit, except in proofs.

Re: What We Look for in Founders

#55

Post by pg »

edanm wrote: post #51
pg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of ways. Many of the questions on the YC application are at least partially about this. When and how did the founders meet? What have they worked on together? Even the stock split sometimes tells us a lot. Yes, we've told groups that we weren't funding them because their friendship didn't seem strong enough to withstand a startup. You'd be surprised some of the meltdowns we've seen in interviews.

Do you mostly care about groups sticking together long enough to get to profitability? Or are you also concerned about the founders having the same mindset?

Just sticking together. They don't have to have the same mindset. E.g. Jobs and Wozniak.

Re: What We Look for in Founders

#56

Post by brk »

[deleted] wrote: post #33

[deleted]

So. Fix it.

Not sure what your personality mismatch was, but I would tend to believe it's something you could alter/improve/change if you consciously wanted to.

Of course, if you REALLY can't get over the "sting" of a simple rejection, then you might find that the never-ending stream of "no"'s and doubts you run across in trying to get something off the ground would be more than you were able to deal with.

Re: What We Look for in Founders

#57

Post by pg »

robg wrote: post #53
pg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of ways. Many of the questions on the YC application are at least partially about this. When and how did the founders meet? What have they worked on together? Even the stock split sometimes tells us a lot. Yes, we've told groups that we weren't funding them because their friendship didn't seem strong enough to withstand a startup. You'd be surprised some of the meltdowns we've seen in interviews.

Is there a meaningful difference between friends who decide to do a startup together versus folks who decide to do a startup together and then become friends? The highest profile successes seem to be more an instance of the latter, but then success seems to help smooth any differences of opinion.

Yes, because in most startups there's a point where things seem hopeless. At that point the startup itself has no power to hold you together, because its expected value is (or appears to be) zero. You need a strong friendship to keep you together. E.g. I know for sure there were lots of times when Rtm thought Viaweb was never going to amount to anything, and only worked on it because I asked him to.

Re: What We Look for in Founders

#58

Post by [deleted] »

brk wrote: post #56
[deleted] wrote: post #33

[deleted]

So. Fix it. Not sure what your personality mismatch was, but I would tend to believe it's something you could alter/improve/change if you consciously wanted to. Of course, if you REALLY can't get over the "sting" of a simple rejection, then you might find that the never-ending stream of "no"'s and doubts you run across in trying to get something off the ground would be more than you were able to deal with.

[deleted]

Re: What We Look for in Founders

#59

Post by johnglasgow »

pg wrote: post #45
edanm wrote: post #13

2 questions on the "friendship" issue: 1. How do you judge whether co-founders are good friends? I'm guessing a simple "how long have they been working together" test is a good indication, but anything else? 2. What level of feedback do you usually give teams that didn't make it? Especially teams that got to the interview stage but didn't make it through? I'm wondering if you've ever told a team your suspicions that…

There are a lot of ways. Many of the questions on the YC application are at least partially about this. When and how did the founders meet? What have they worked on together? Even the stock split sometimes tells us a lot. Yes, we've told groups that we weren't funding them because their friendship didn't seem strong enough to withstand a startup. You'd be surprised some of the meltdowns we've seen in interviews.

What are your thoughts the two founders being identical twin brothers?

Re: What We Look for in Founders

#60

Post by pg »

johnglasgow wrote: post #59
pg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of ways. Many of the questions on the YC application are at least partially about this. When and how did the founders meet? What have they worked on together? Even the stock split sometimes tells us a lot. Yes, we've told groups that we weren't funding them because their friendship didn't seem strong enough to withstand a startup. You'd be surprised some of the meltdowns we've seen in interviews.

What are your thoughts the two founders being identical twin brothers?

So far siblings seem to work well.
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