How to Find the Right Co-founder

TL;DR

Cofounders are critical for productivity, moral support, and pattern-matching to success. The default recommendation is to wait for a great cofounder unless you have extremely high conviction in your idea and can build an initial prototype alone (e.g., Drew Houston before Dropbox). The single most important trait to evaluate in a cofounder is how they handle stress.

Key insights

• A cofounder provides emotional support that paid employees cannot, because employees are less invested and you cannot be as open with them.
• The best cofounder relationships have a balancing dynamic: one founder lifts the other when down and grounds them when overconfident.
• Single founders can succeed only if they have extremely high conviction in the idea (personal problem or domain expertise) and are technical enough to build a first version alone.