The story of why I embarked on building the Startup Studio dream is well-documented by now. But one of the most crucial aspects has always fascinated me: data-driven work. After building several tech startups, it was the data that inspired me daily. Super cool, but can you apply data-driven principles to how you build a company or whom you build it with? These questions have constantly intrigued me.

The challenge of finding the right founding team

We all know that one of the top three reasons startups fail is the founding team. The match isn’t perfect, we don’t complement each other enough, or we reach a deadlock and fail to cross the finish line together. When we started Builders, we began reaching out to ideal profiles I saw potential in for starting a company together. Quickly, I learned that timing often went wrong. Prospective co-founders are willing to talk and find your story inspiring, but they’re in a golden cage and aren’t willing to take the risk of starting from scratch again. Or maybe they’ll reconsider in a year? Let’s keep in touch…

The role of data in finding founders

Did I look at data? Absolutely. How long have they been active in a similar role? That’s data, right? I also gauged from the business founder profile that they had achieved successes in raising funds and had impressive sales results. You can distill some personality traits from a conversation. But still, no results.

Turning outbound efforts into inbound results

After years of working on our studio brand, we managed to turn my outbound efforts into an inbound result, without using paid promotions, attracting 50–150 qualified founders per month. They are ready, and they provide all the data I need to assess whether I can empower them to be jointly successful. Multiple conversations take place, and we really get to know each other. The tools we use know what we’re looking for and tell me at every step whether I should continue the process or stop, helping me handle this efficiently.

The importance of personality testing

You think you have everything? That must lead to success, right? But you’re always seeking more confirmation(ScienceDaily) (Phys.org). That’s why, at the end of our process, we include a personality test to predict the potential success of our collaboration. This test isn’t about identifying your weaknesses but rather highlighting where you excel and how we can leverage each other’s strengths to complement one another. By incorporating personality tests, we can identify potential mismatches early on and ensure our team has the right mix of traits necessary for navigating the complexities of starting and growing a business.

The process of matching founders

Step by step, our process helps us determine whether a match can indeed be made. We have analyzed many profiles and continue to learn every day. We know which traits fit well with Builders, but this will never tell us if we are dealing with the next entrepreneur who will build the unicorn we are all looking for.

Building strong co-founder relationships

Discussing the outcome together and being transparent about everyone’s insights leads to a deeper relationship. Starting a partnership, co-founding a company, is not just your next challenge; you are committing to each other for the next 5–7 years, working closely together every day, and seeing sides of each other that you can’t predict in advance.

The role of the technical co-founder

This process is exactly the same for the technical founder we are looking for. We talk about personality and the skills to successfully undertake this together. No one is perfect, or let’s say, no one can do everything. Together you are stronger than alone. It may be that you and your co-founder have the same profile. Does that mean you don’t complement each other enough? You can have the same personality but possess different skill sets. How do you ensure that your personalities complement each other sufficiently, or is that not necessary?

Beyond personality tests

This happens more than one might think. Therefore, the personality test is not the end of our process. There is a questionnaire, full of standard questions such as “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”, “How do you handle stress?”, and “What are your long-term career goals?” But do you really listen? There are also more personal questions that you might not think to ask but say a lot about your expectations of and from each other, how you stand in life, and how you think about work. These are questions you should answer about each other before even considering starting a business together.

Capturing conversations for deeper insights

Every conversation between co-founders is recorded with permission. When you listen back, reserve at least 2 hours of podcast listening time for yourself, as you want to hear every detail. From this, you can deduce whether personalities match. Each duo approaches this differently. My last podcast got cozier after a few drinks, and the conversation became more personal, revealing that people matched not only at work but also in personality.

Continuous learning and improvement

I can’t offer a precise, data-driven formula for the perfect match or the exact traits that lead to the greatest success with Builders yet, but our accumulated data points now allows us to make more strategic and informed decisions. Our ongoing analysis and experience enable us to continually refine our approach and improve our chances of building successful teams. 🙃💪