Excellent post.<p>It seems like many people look for co-founders backwards; they start looking for people with skills they lack and go from there. I think it makes sense to start with people you have good relationships with first and then later turn it into a business partnership.<p>I started my own project as a solo-founder. I met my current co-founder at a conference. She had and still has her own project. We thought we could collaborate through our projects separately, but as time went on it just made more sense to bring her on as a full partner/co-founder for my project.<p>From a complementary skills standpoints, it works OK.<p>The best thing about the relationship is that she is fun to work with. It makes working on the project fun and sustainable.<p>Great post and good luck with your company!
This bit "Learn what makes her happiest and what stresses her out. See how she responds to difficult situations or murky ethical quandaries. Find out how she treats others (and herself) when things aren’t going well." is really important I think. Lots of people can get along when everything is going great. The difference between just being friends and co-founding a company is how you get along when things are going badly.
Dating before you get married is the best way to go in all business relationships. Business relationships are far harder than marriage, friendships and more.<p>Only focussing on healthy, short term relationships is the most important thing. If they are healthy in the short term, they will become long term on their own.<p>It's difficult to get on the same page, and even harder to stay on the same page as personal life changes happen.<p>Solving smaller problems together / hacking solutions is not a bad way to see how things are going. I am part of a small startup club locally and the past year of hanging out and talking shop about our own products, and building the odd utility together has revealed a lot about who I would click with.<p>A business partnership isn't something to lightly run into either. Educate yourself on the value of doing joint ventures first, or one party paying the other to respect their time. Once there is sufficient traction it can be converted into ownership as well.<p>Working with friends is also tough, but possible if you both are experienced professionals and know when to turn friendship off and work relationship on. You have to know how not to use the friendship or personal things as a weapon professionally, or vice versa.