10 Ideal Founding Team Characteristics

A companies founders will make or break the business.

Although their percentage of ownership will decrease over time, if they do it right, the value of that ownership will grow substantially.

Here are my 10 ideal founding team characteristics 🧵 pic.twitter.com/tNL1W95PM8

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#1. Varying Skill Set

The amount of founding teams with 2 business guys or 4 engineers is insane.

You need one BUILDER and one SELLER.

Builder = technical genius who is going to be the architect of the product.

Seller = business / go-to-market pro that can acquire customers.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#2. Success is the only option

When I started my business we were all in.

Failure would have devastating consequences.

You have to be committed in blood to the next 10+ years together regardless of external opportunities - big salaries, family stuff, etc.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#3. Chip on their shoulder

Start-ups are not for the faint of heart. They're really hard. You need mentally strong folks that will run through walls, regardless of how impossible it seems.

Folks willing to do this have a chip on their shoulder.

They've got something to prove.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#4. Long-term thinkers

The fouding team has to be long term thinkers. When thinking about careers, most folks think very short-term, what am I going to make this year? If I make that jump can I make more money?

Every founder has to be thinking on 10 year timeframe.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#5. No Ego

Ego kills many start-ups. Founders having big egos inhibits the ability to recruit great people, to trust their teams, to achieve the right level of buy-in

Founders with egos is cancerous to the entire organization.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#6. Maniacal Focus on Learning

Founders have to be willing to do anything that they ask someone else to do.

Naturally, that's going to be a lot of things they just don't know how to do.

The only way to succeed is to constantly be growing and improving and putting in reps.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#7. Relentless

There are so many horrible things that will happen in a start-up.

So many situations were it just seems like death is immenient.

The only way to get through the times is for the founders to just be relentless. Giving up is never an option.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#8. Customer Obsessed

Founders that fall in love with fundraising or aspects of their job that aren't correlated with helping the customer experience magic are destined to fail.

You have to love the customer you serve otherwise you just won't stick through the tough times.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#9. Humble Pie

If your fortunate to achieve some level of success you can't ever get caught up in it. The only way to continue to thrive is to eat your humble pie, kill your ego.

It's the only way to attract great people. Without great people you're screwed.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

#10. Top Notch Storytelling

One of the founders has to be an exceptional storyteller. They have to constantly paint a picture that others wan't to see become a reality.

They have to be someone that others are willing to follow.

Recruiting is everything in start-ups.

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

To summarize the 10 ideal founding team characteristics

#1. Varying skill set
#2. Success is the only option
#3. Chip on their shoulder
#4. Longterm thinkers
#5. No ego
#6. Maniacal focus on learning
#7. Relentless
#8. Customer Obsessed
#9. Humble Pie
#10. Top Notch Storytelling

— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023

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— Luke Sophinos (@lukesophinos) March 18, 2023