Questions for Potential Cofounders

In the startup world, whenever I attend a meetup, most people’s opening line is: ‘What’s your idea? What are you looking for? My idea is this.’

If they don’t find common interests, they just move on and repeat the process. Early-stage startups and aspiring founders often struggle to find the right co-founder. So, they frequently post job listings, seek connections through friends, or attend local events. And once again, they approach me with the same introduction.

I’ve been a CTO in several startups, and what I’ve learned from them is that we sometimes faced internal issues that led to company failures. These issues revolved around how to handle finances and share profits. When a company has no money or investment, it would still be fine. As we are all hungry and poor, there is zero chance to argue between them. But what if we secure significant investment from investors or start generating substantial revenue? Things are getting ugly quickly than we would imagine.

I often ask some questions to my potential cofounders like these.

🔍 Questions for Potential Co-founders 🔍 Why Pursue Your Idea? 🤔 What motivates you to work on your idea? Are there specific reasons driving your commitment?

Handling Idea Challenges 🧩 How would you navigate if your idea doesn’t meet expectations? What’s your approach to managing potential setbacks?

Funding and Salaries 💰If we secure initial investor funding: How would we determine salaries for you, co-founders? Most employees will want to get salaries raised. How to handle that? Do you think about the burn rate?

Profit Distribution 📈 Imagine selling a 100 million USD mystery box. What’s your proposed method for sharing profits among stakeholders?

Crisis Scenario 🆘 If fundraising fails and employee salaries can’t be paid: What plan would you implement? Would you still want to get your salary too?

Personally I believe that ideas will be changed all the time and we should do that but you can’t change your co-founders because you need to change your idea.

That is why I have less interest in what your current idea would be, I would like to know who you are first if I want to find a co-founder.

#startups #cofounders #teambuilding #fundraising