Factors to consider while choosing co-founders:
It’s essential to look for someone who is entrepreneurial-minded. When you start a company, you need to hustle and do many things because there’s no one else to do it.
Find somebody who can complement your skills. If you know how to run a business, you need a co-founder or two from a technical and product-building background and vice versa.
Align the startup’s vision and values around the kind of company you’re looking to build. For instance, are you in for a long haul (say, 10-15 years) or do you want to sell out after a few years?
Discuss the pace of growing your startup. Figure out if you want a 100-hour week or a 40-hour week (with a life and family on the side).
Talk about survival mode. When you’re starting a company, you’re not going to get a huge paycheck. Do you have enough to run your lives and support your families (if you’re in that stage of life)?
Once you have all these conversations and based your decisions on those, get all the legal documents in place. At the minimum level, have a shareholders’ agreement that governs the working relationships. If something goes wrong somewhere (it mostly does), you can go back to the shareholders’ agreement to sort out what’s allowed, what’s not, and how to proceed from there.