it's great to have someone you can lean on for support during the tough times. And what I've noticed about the best co-founder relationships is they have this dynamic where both co-founders kind of balance each other out.

to have a co-founder is pattern matching to success. If you look at a list of the most successful startups in history, think of Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, they all had co-founders when they started.

something I've noticed that the best single founders are also able to do is not only are they tremendously productive in building product and talking to users themselves, they're also able to run a great background search for co-founders and keep their eyes open.

the single most important thing to know about someone before you start a company with them is how do they handle stress. Sort of second most important is how well are they going to help you handle stress.

a great co-founder should be able to support you through those and help you through those.

are they someone that's going to stick around when things are tough? And are they someone that's going to help you want to stick around when things are tough?

that usually means there's someone, a close friend, or someone that you've worked with, under stressful conditions.

The second thing I think you really want to look for is understanding the goals and values someone has for starting a company or wanting to do a startup.

it's really important to talk with someone, even if you know them very well, about why they want to do a startup, what are they hoping for?

it's not a perfect predictor, because people's goals and ambitions for a startup change over time.

it's obviously really important to have a co-founder who has the right sort of skills to help you grow the company. And usually that means someone who's got complementary set of skills to you

more important than anything is just working with someone that you like working with and you trust.

What does matter is that they're willing to learn what they need to learn.

It's to start with the people you already know. So ideally, your friends and colleagues, and kind of ironically, the best time to find a co-founder are when you're not actually necessarily looking for a co-founder to start a company with right now.

the other thing that's great about projects is you can work on different projects with different people and you can start developing a taste for who do you like? Well, what kinds of personalities?

Projects that you work on in your spare time often tend to be some of the greatest sources for actually finding great startup ideas and building huge companies.

what I've noticed is an issue people run into here is that they can be really reluctant to just ask people they know to start a company with them.

it's not the right optimization for starting a company, you have to make the ask.

make a list of the people that you know, you're closest to that you think would be great co-founders, and start from top to bottom, and ask every single person there to go grab a coffee and talk to them, and ask them if they'll start a company with you and be your co-founder.

if constantly on the lookout for people who might make co-founders, you have a high chance of finding someone who could be a good fit.

"Do we both enjoy working together on this? And if so, great, let's go ahead and make the leap." And if not, be honest and say, "Hey, let's go our own separate ways."

making sure that both of you are happy with what the equity arrangement is, and will be motivated to keep working on the company for a long period of time.

"Hey, maybe I should take 70% interest, just leave them 30%," because you've made progress in the last 6 months, I would encourage you not to do that. Startups are a really long-term game and you win by making the best decision long term.

if you need to be doing sales, it usually might be good if the CEO is a person, where CEO title is the person talking to customers and users and convincing them because they might feel a little bit more flattered if the CEO is pitching them.

be honest with yourselves, if you think it's really important to you to be the CEO, and you both feel that way, you're not good co-founders for each other.