How do you figure out you picked a "winner" startup before joining?<p>Let me preface this with saying, I'll be so upset if the majority of answers boil down to having a lot of luck :D I've been burned out through a few early stage companies and it feels like it's all blind luck. Hopefully it's not all a guessing game and you can make predictions based on certain qualities and metrics of a startup at early stages.<p>As a bonus question: would you work for an early startup whose founder(s) have no previous business track record?
I look for:<p>1. Solving an actual problem for actual users that users have shown they are willing to pay for. This One Neat Trick will leave you significantly better off than average: everything else is secondary.<p>2. No long hours, burned out founders, fancy soda machines or other signs of prioritising appearances over competence.<p>3. Multiple cofounders, but one that is in charge. That person should have at least have managed a team before, and the people they had managed should respect them.<p>4. The team should look like the audience they intend to serve. Unless the product is specifically for men, no way I'd join a team that's all dudes.<p>No startup track record might be okay, depending on what background they did have, but I'm also always concerned about founders who are willing to give away the farm for funding. I need to trust the CEO with my stock options, not just the company's success.