The 2 founder types I like to back: 1. Hyper technical, 19-25ish, couple past jobs, seen greatness somewhere, has great product taste & can attract top talent Right to win: extreme product velocity 2. Hyper competent founder coming out of industry w a clear problem to solve in a large market, knows who to hire, what customers to sell to & has roadmap to execute against. You are only underwriting execution risk & capital is just a lubricant, not a need. Right to win: built-in distribution advantage The ideal founder is someone who has built-in distribution + product velocity and can recruit the best people.

I can cleanly slice every winner in my portfolio into one of these 2 archetypes or the mythical 3rd category where they have a majority of both traits. What matters for a startup is talent density, distribution, & product velocity. Great founders have all 3.

@benktaytay The figures it out faster than everyone thing I think falls into product velocity category

My best founders are 2nd time founders who had mediocre or poor outcomes in their first at bat & learned lessons on someone else’s dime or went from startup to startup building reps and domain experience to learn what they should/shouldn’t do when they go to start their co.