What Should You Ask a Potential Co-Founder?
Choosing a co-founder for your startup is a critical decision that will shape your entrepreneurial journey. The relationship between co-founders will include tough and complex moments of facing challenges, alongside, of course, successes and moments of joy. That’s why it’s so important to choose the right partner for this path.
In this blog post, we’re sharing a set of questions recommended by Einat Drutin, Head of People at Grove Ventures, that you should ask a potential co-founder before you decide to build a company together. These questions can help you understand if you share the same vision, if your strengths complement each other, whether there’s real chemistry between you, and how your potential partner handles the tough moments that are unavoidable.
To go even deeper, we’ve created a quiz that helps you understand your own founder profile: highlighting strengths, spotting blind spots, and pointing you toward the type of co-founder who might be the best fit. Take the quiz here.
Vision & Values
Ask yourself:
- Do we want to build the same kind of company?
- Do we share the same core values in areas like integrity, transparency, work-life balance, and how we handle failure?
Ask your potential co-founder:
- How do you define “success”?
- How do you see this company three years from now?
Skills & Strengths
Look for complementary skill sets.
Ask yourself:
- What are your strengths, and what are theirs?
- Does each one of you have a domain expertise to take full ownership of a different area of the business?
Ask your potential co-founder:
- What have you done that shows you can build things from scratch?
Personal Chemistry
Ask yourself:
- Can you disagree and still maintain a strong working relationship?
- Can you have hard conversations without losing it?
- Can you still laugh together even when it’s tough?
Ask your potential co-founder:
- What makes you a good partner?
- What’s hard about working with you?
- How do you respond to criticism?
First crisis = first real test.
Resilience & Commitment
Ask your potential co-founder:
- Do you give up easily when things get rough?
- What would make you walk away from this venture?
- Did you work on complicated projects from scratch? During your military service, studies?
- Are you mentally, financially, and personally ready to commit to a startup right now?
One last (important) tip:
Before you go “official” – work together.
Spend a few months building something together: prepare a deck for investors, a pilot for customers – whatever feels real. Your first crisis together will be your first real character test.
Not sure yet? Take the quiz to find your co-founder match
Watch our interview with Einat Drutin about choosing the right co-founder for your startup: