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Comment by anon | Hacker News Reader

[I submitted this anonymously because the person in question may very well read this site now or at some point in the future.]

In short: I have a potential co founder, which is something that everyone seems to say is good. The problem, though, is that I don't think this guy is perfect (he may well think the same of me), for various reasons. Ok, no one is perfect, but I know people that I think would be "about as good as you could get" (unfortunately they aren't available), and this guy doesn't measure up.

Better to strike out on my own, or throw in my lot with someone who's perhaps not the right person?

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Check the velocity. Is he not-perfect-but-getting-better? Or is he not-perfect-and-getting-bored?

You want the former, you don't want the latter. Someone who's not perfect but listens well, is interested in improving, and is passionate about the company will likely soon be perfect, or as close to it as you're realistically going to get.

If he's not really into it to begin with, then it doesn't matter if he's perfect, you still don't want to partner with him.

One of my sayings is "Perfection is Difficult" meaning that it is actually impossible. I wouldn't want to start up a company with someone I couldn't completely trust. Having different skill sets is actually a very good thing, but you need to really like the company of the person.

> I wouldn't want to start up a company with someone I couldn't completely trust.

You can never completely trust VCs ;)

others have summed it up pretty well, with the "no false positives" perspective. But, I will play devil's advocate and say: Make sure you aren't just looking for "someone like me", and finding no one measures up. I've noticed this in some younger founders...there's a pair of folks who are nearly identical in skills, history, and goals, and this is not necessarily a good mix for success in a startup. They get along great, but they aren't a good team.

You both need the same drive to build something great. But you need to have different skills, different areas you enjoy working on. If you don't, you'll fight over the mythical bike shed and the hard solitary work won't get done. And there's a lot of hard solitary work in a startup.

Great question. This reminded me of Joe Kraus's article on the subject. He makes a compelling case:

http://bnoopy.typepad.com/bnoopy/2004/09/hiring_no_false.html

great link, thanks!

By the way you formulated that question it seems obvious that you don't want him?

tough call, but this is a make or break decision for your company, if your gut says this person is not a near perfect fit, I would suggest passing.

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