Sameer Babbar

View Original

Cofounder selection: Are skills more important or values?

I hear a lot about the importance of value and skills and their matching in the very early stages of the entrepreneurial journey.

This is only one aspect of the story. The context of values and criteria of skills can be a limited set of data available when starting out. You do need a cofounder with the right skills but that is only a small part of the journey.

Startups have always worked better when founders have known each other from the early stages of life - Buffet and Munger, Jobs and Wozniak, Blecharczyk, Chesky and Gebbia for Airbnb ….. and the list goes on. These cofounders have been together through ups and downs, through situations and challenges the life and business have thrown at them.

Ordinary mortals who get to find cofounders at later stages of life find that skills may be easy to flag using a checkbox approach. Values may take uncovering over a period of time. By the time any contradictions in values are found it may be already too late.

At the very nascent stage of business, it is hard for you to understand the values and skills of other founders, the best way to set the path to success is by ensuring there is a match of energy, passion, determination, enthusiasm, commitment and synchronisation among the team members, we; before even looking at skills.

You should be able to look the other person in the eye and feel that you can trust this person and confidently let values take precedence over skills.

Mistakes will happen, and challenges of adverse selection and moral hazard may still exist but you are likely to be better off than starting purely with skills. Remember, it is a partnership and commitment to a long-term association.

Skills are learnt, values imbibed gradually over a period of time like percolation, sometimes it may take generations.

You may be able to teach someone how to do the right thing, but it is only their moral value compass that will ensure they will follow through with it time after time.

(C) Sameer Babbar

sbabbar@sameerbabbar.com