What I Look for in an Entrepreneur

  1. Uncanny drive in a clear direction. Conviction.  
  2. Knows his/her companies secret sauce and guards it, grows it.
  3. Complete integrity.  His/her past decisions and actions should be evidence of this.
  4. Manages leanly.  Avoids waste.  Manages time and money well.
  5. Builds and inspires his/her village:  employees, investors, advisors
  6. Minimizes risk.  An entrepreneur is by definition comfortable with risk; but the best ones don’t seek risk, they seek to minimize risk
  7. Business ability.  There is no free lunch.  The usual qualities of successful business people are important:
    • Intelligence
    • Decision making skills; particularly knowing when its time to wait and assess, and time to decide and act
    • Organization and time management
    • Leadership; motivating and managing people
    • Education (of note, First Round reviewed their 10 year history, and found that their portfolio companies with one or more founders with a degree from an Ivy League School, Stanford, MIT, or Caltech, performed 220% better than other teams).
 Red flags
  1. A cavalier attitude to failure. Failure is not a virtue, despite what you might read or hear.  Failure has no inherent value and is the worst outcome for investors.  Of course, many monumental successes have been born out of failure — it can create time to think, learn, change, and be brilliant — but its what you do after a flop that counts.
  2. A lack of relevant experience and skills, especially when you don’t appreciate what you don’t know, and don’t build a “village” to compensate.