The qualities we want to find from the founders

"Author of this article: Paul http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/9797.html" > Graham, Original link "

This article, which I wrote for Forbes, invited me to write an article on "What qualities do we want to find from an entrepreneur". Due to limited space in the print edition, the last point in this article was deleted.

1. Determination

This ultimately becomes the most important quality for founders of startups. When we founded Y Combinator, we used to think that the most important quality of the entrepreneur was "intelligence", in other words, cleverness. But it's just the myth of Silicon Valley. Of course, you certainly don't want founders to be stupid. But as long as the intellectual level of the entrepreneur crosses a certain threshold, the most important thing left is determination. You will encounter countless obstacles. You can't be the kind of person who is easily discouraged.

WePay's Bill Grey (Bill clerico) and Richie Aberman (Rich Aberman) are a good example. What they do is a financial start-up, which means there are countless negotiations, between big and bureaucratic companies. When you start a small company and its success depends on trading with other big companies, you tend to feel that they are always trying to ignore you. However, if Bill Grey to call you, you may as well do as they requested, otherwise he will not stop.

2. Flexible

In any case, you don't want the kind of determination that the phrase "never give up your dream" implies. The world of startups is very uncertain and you need to revise your dreams while flying. As for the determination and flexibility you need, I think the "turn around" in rugby is a good metaphor. He must have the determination to pass (downfield) direct, but at any given moment, he may need to cross (sideway) or even post (backward) to arrive.

The current record of entrepreneurial agility should be maintained by Daniel Gross, a Greplin Nier Gross. When he applied for YC, he still had some bad ideas about E-commerce. We told him we would vote for him unless he could do something else. He thought for a few seconds and then said OK. Then he went through two other ideas and finally arrived at Greplin. He spent only a few days studying the idea before giving the Demo to the investors, but he finally caught everyone's interest. He always seems to have survived.

3. Imagination

Intelligence is of course a very important aspect, but imagination may be more important. It might be even better to come out of the box and think of some new ideas that can be enlightened, as opposed to solving a predefined problem quickly. In the start-up world, many good ideas start to look bad at first. Because, if obviously very good, others have already done. So you need to have the intelligence that produces a little bit of a seemingly "stupid" idea.

Airbnb is the idea. In fact, when we invest in Airbnb, we think it's crazy. We can't believe that so many people would want to stay in someone else's house. We invest it just because we love his founder too much. When we heard that they were able to feed themselves only by selling the Obama and John McCain brand breakfast cereal, they were on our mind. And it turns out that their ideas are just a little bit too far away from madness.

4, Naughty

Although the most successful entrepreneurs are usually good people, they all seem to have a pirate-like glow in their eyes. They're not that kind of a prude. Morally, they care about doing the right thing on big things, but they don't include compliance. This is why I use the word "naughty" rather than "evil". They are happy to break the rules, but they are not important rules. Naughty This quality may seem superfluous, but it implies imagination.

Loopt founder Sham Ottmann (Sam Altman) is the most successful example. So we asked him what we could put on the application of Y Combinator to help us find people like him. When he told us, he asked, "When did you complete an advantage hacker act?"-which means completely defeating the system, not just breaking into the computer. This sentence eventually becomes the most concerned problem when we judge the application.

5. Friendship

From experience, only a founder's company is often difficult. Most companies that have a big business initially have two or three founders. And the relationship between founders must be very iron. They must genuinely like each other and work effectively together. The friendship between startups and founders is like dogs and socks: if the two can be separated, it becomes.

Justin.tv's Amite Cher (Emmett shear) and Justin Gan are examples of very good friends starting a business together. They knew each other in their second year of elementary school and could almost read what was going on in their minds. I think there will be arguments between them, like all entrepreneurs, but I've never heard of any tension between them.

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Thank Jessica Livingston (Jessica Livingston) and Chris Steinach (Chris Steiner) for reading this draft.

Source: http://apple4.us/2010/10/what-we-look-for-in-founders.html