Back To The Basics

Investors' perspective on start-up founders

As an early-stage investor, the quality of founders is one of the most important criteria for us when we invest. Usually, at the time we come in, there is limited consumer traction and market understanding is more a hypothesis than a statement of fact.

But what does "quality of founders" mean? Having worked with scores of founders, there are some behavioral traits (as opposed to personality traits) that I have observed in strong founders that I have worked with and look out for:

• Curiosity and pattern recognition: Entrepreneurs need to have the curiosity to constantly look at the environment around them for opportunities, potentially for making things better/faster/cheaper. Often, the first idea they have may not be the winner – but as long as they are curious and intent on building out a solution, you often discover even better ones once you interact with the market and customers