🚩 3 red flags you have the wrong cofounder

Joel Hansen

Sep 9, 2022 • 4 min read

GM Friends,

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🚩 3 cofounder red flags
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🥳 New discussions feature to test
🐦 Tweet of the week

Grab a paddle and let's skedaddle 🚣

😡 3 signs you have the wrong cofounder

It's one thing to source your startup idea. It's another to find a co-founder. (A good one at least). You've read the Elizabeth Holmes trial and you've watched the Succession show. We all know how sh*tty it is to work with bad people. So we're gonna tell you how to avoid them.

We drummed up 3 things to keep an eye on before you break bread with a cofounder 🥐

Print the list, bookmark this URL and memorize it before bed. We'd hate to see your startup idea in the trash b/c of a cofounder relationship gone sour. Here's your 3 red flags to watch for when locking in a cofounder:

🚩 Screwing up the VC pitch: you've rehearsed for weeks, fact-checked your slides and even got your Aunt Pam to email intro you to her friend that works at BlackRock. The big meeting comes and what happens? Your cofounder fumbles the punch line. Youch. Not taking the VC meetings seriously is definitely a red flag to watch for.
🚩 Low Integrity: we all make mistakes. But we're supposed to learn from them, not repeat them. Things like stealing startup ideas, skewing data or misleading customers should all be signs that a cofounder isn't the one for you.
🚩 Going behind your back: anything with "ing" should be shared between cofounders: validating, hiring, pitching, raising etc. If you find these things are being swept under the rug without you knowing, double tap on the why. If they're going behind your back, sound the alarms.

Finding the perfect cofounder is hard. So we're trying to build Kernal to be a trusted space for founders and ideators to meet.

By vetting the members, qualifying the ideas and regularly checking in on MVPs, we're increasing the luck surface area for you to find the perfect match. Got an idea for us to improve on? We wanna hear it 👂

And if you have another red flag 🚩 founders should watch out for drop it below👇

Ruin a cofounder relationship in 5 words or less
— Kernal (@kernal_ideas) September 8, 2022

🌱 Startup Ideas of the Week 🌱

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Ways You Can Help Founders this Week

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Answer Andy: let him know if you'd use his startup for an internal newsletter

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Answer Sneha: how does her website messaging sound?

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Answer David: let him know if you're connected with any aspiring cofounders in the publishing industry

🎉 New Feature, Who Dis?

Say hello to Discussions: an internal Twitter feed we're building for Kernal users to have water cooler chat around their startup ideas.

Have you read this? 📚
Who knows a good freelancer writer well versed in e-commerce? 💸
Anybody have 5 mins to read over my deck before I present? 👋

Those are the questions people are asking. And we're loving the relationships starting to form. It's still early access but we're open to letting a dozen users from the newsletter try it out.

Smash the green button below if you'd like to get in line.

Request access to Discussions feature