http://fundersandfounders.com/startup-dirty-laundry-conflicts-that-kill-partnerships/
Types of Faux Cofounders
First of all, choose the right person. Just like in dating, take your time to find the right one. There are plenty of wrong choices out there. Here are the steriotypical profiles you need to avoid.
The Lawyer. This type of co-founder tries to define every expectation you can define. He will try to put everything into an agreement. The downside of this type of co-founder is that he will worry about dividing things up before actually creating anything. What is the point of having all the equity split agreements if there is really nothing to divide in the beginning.
The Friend. This type of co-founder is probably someone you knew before working on your startup together. They are probably a really nice person who got excited about the startup. They said they loved your idea. 6 months later, after the honeymoon period of the statup was over, they lost steam and stopped working as hard. At the same time they are still thinking they have 50% of the equity.
The Genius. This type of co-founder is probably really smart. Much smarter than you even. They work hard. You probably first fell in love with that combination. But they are so brilliant they don’t even need you. They just cannot collaborate with anyone. In effect you are not working together – what is the point of having this co-founder then?
The “Marketeer”. This type co-founder hustles day and night getting clients and marketing away. That’s great, except they have no understing of the product that the other co-founder is building. When the technical co-founder tries to explain to them why the javascript is slowing down the load time they draw a black. Run the other way.
The Thinker.This type of cofounder is going to want to strategize with you a lot. They are going to have grandiose plans of revolutionizing the industry. But they got no real clue of how to get the initial 1000 users. It’s all just talk, no action. Send them back to the academia.
The Lurker. This type of co-founder always has the Job Monster website open in a tab. They have multiple Facebook accounts, that they use to market their many side projects. Their official Facebook account doesn’t say anything about them doing a startup. At any moment, and without warning, they will up and go work on something else.
