Founders, VCs, Investors—Let’s Talk About an Overlooked Issue with an Outsized Impact

Rethinking How We Choose Our Co-Founders

There’s a lot of advice out there for startups. Fundraising strategies, product-market fit, go-to-market timing—you name it. But there’s one foundational decision that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: how we choose our co-founders.

The Common Mistake

Too often, we choose co-founders based on the hardest immediate need—“We need someone who can code,” or “We need a salesperson to pitch this.” And while those needs are real, prioritizing hard skills alone creates a blind spot.

The reality? A co-founder’s character and soft skills often end up mattering far more than their initial technical contributions.

Three Buckets of Skill

I’ve started breaking this down into a simple framework—three skill buckets that can guide this thinking:

1️⃣ Flash-Forged - Things like product knowledge or sales tactics. These are everywhere—books, YouTube, courses. If your co-founder doesn’t have them yet, they will.

2️⃣ Forged Through Fire - Upskilling here requires sustained learning. Think coding, leadership, strategic thinking—these take time, reps, mentorship. They’re trainable, but they require patience and investment.

3️⃣ Founder's Fiber - Here’s the gold. These are the rare, hard-to-teach traits like:

• Resilience

• Curiosity

• Bias for action

• Adaptability

• Decisiveness

Sure, you can teach them—but only in extraordinary circumstances and with massive effort. For most founders, it’s far easier (and smarter) to find these qualities rather than try to instill them from scratch.

A Call for Intention

So here’s the challenge I’ll throw out to the founder and investor community:

How can we bring more intention and structure to co-founder selection?

Are there frameworks, interview processes, or mindset shifts that can help us make better long-term decisions—before the equity is split and the product is shipped?

Let’s start this conversation. I’d love to hear what’s worked for you.