Co-founder Compatibility Test
Answer 30 questions about how you want to build a company. Then send the link to your co-founder. When they answer, you both see an alignment score for 8 dimensions and the 5 biggest gaps to talk through. Your answers live in the link. We do not store them.
Take the test
The test takes about 5 minutes. Answer for yourself, and give the answer you would really act on. Your co-founder sees your answers only after they finish their own.
At the end, you get your founder profile and a link for your co-founder.
The 8 dimensions
- Risk
- Pace and hours
- Money and salary
- Exit goals
- Decision making
- Conflict
- Builder or distributor
- Values and culture
Need a co-founder or a distribution partner?
Founder Ventures partners with bootstrapped B2B SaaS founders. Apply with your co-founder, or apply alone. If you come alone, we can introduce you to complementary builders in our network.
Apply to Founder VenturesThe 30 questions to ask a co-founder
These are the questions in the test, grouped by dimension. Each one comes with a topic to agree on. You can also use them in a co-founder conversation without the test.
Risk
How much each of you bets on an uncertain outcome.
Which outcome would you pick for this company?
Agree on the outcome you build for. It decides how many risky bets you take on product and spend.
How much of your own savings would you put into the company?
Agree how much money each of you puts in. Agree what happens to that money if one of you leaves.
With no traction, how long do you keep going before you change direction?
Set a date and a number now. For example, decide what you do if you have fewer than 10 paying customers after 6 months.
Pace and hours
How much time you give and how fast you ship.
How many hours a week can you give the company in the next 6 months?
Compare your real weekly hours. Agree what each of you delivers with those hours.
When will you work on the company full-time?
Agree on the trigger for each of you to go full-time. Write down the revenue number or the date.
How often should you ship to customers?
Agree on a release rhythm. Decide the quality bar that a release must pass.
How do you treat evenings and weekends?
Agree when you expect replies from each other. Agree which times stay free.
Money and salary
When you pay yourselves and how you spend.
How many months could you live on savings with no salary?
Share your real runway. The founder with less runway needs income sooner. Plan for that date together.
When should the founders start to pay themselves?
Agree on the revenue level that starts founder salaries. Decide if both founders get the same amount.
The company makes its first $10,000 of profit. What do you do with it?
Agree on a rule for profit before the first profit arrives. Decide what share goes back to the founders.
How do you want to spend on tools and ads before you have revenue?
Set a monthly spend limit. Agree which costs need a yes from both founders.
Exit goals
What you build toward and when you would sell.
What is your plan for the company?
Describe the company you want to own in 5 years. Check that you both describe the same company.
In year 2, a buyer offers $3M for the company. What do you do?
Agree on the price that makes each of you sell. Decide how you choose if only one of you wants to sell.
How many years do you want to work on this company?
Say how long you plan to stay. Agree what happens to the company if one of you wants to leave early.
Would you raise venture capital?
Agree if you raise money, and from whom. Venture capital sets a growth target that the company must hit.
Decision making
Who decides, and how much evidence a decision needs.
How should you make big decisions?
List the decisions you expect this year. Mark who decides each one.
Who should be CEO?
Agree who is CEO now. Agree when you review that choice.
What do you need before a big product decision?
Agree how much evidence a decision needs. Agree who can decide without it.
Conflict
How you raise problems and break a deadlock.
You disagree with your co-founder. When do you raise it?
Agree how and when you raise a problem. A weekly founder meeting gives every issue a fixed time.
How do you want to hear criticism of your work?
Tell each other how you want to receive criticism. Give one example of feedback that worked for you.
You deadlock on a big decision. How long can it stay open?
Agree on a tie-break rule before you need it. For example, the founder who owns the area decides after a set time.
One founder stops doing their share. When should the other one say so?
Agree what each of you delivers each month. Agree what happens if one of you stops. A vesting schedule puts that answer in writing.
Builder or distributor
Who builds the product and who brings in customers.
Which work do you want to spend most of your week on?
Split the work of a normal week. Make sure one founder owns the product and one owns customers.
Where are you strongest today?
List the skills the next 12 months need. Mark the skills that neither of you has.
You need 10 new customers this month. What do you do first?
Agree who owns the first 100 customers. That person reports the number every week.
Which task would you hand off first?
Compare the work you each want to avoid. Make sure one of you wants each of those tasks.
Values and culture
How open you are, and how you want the team to work.
How public should you be about revenue and progress?
Agree what you share in public. Decide who approves a post about the company.
A bug breaks a feature for a week. What do you tell customers?
Agree how you tell customers about a problem. Write the rule down before the first incident.
How should the team work?
Agree where each of you lives and works. Decide how often you meet in person.
Would you sell to a customer in an industry you dislike?
List the customers you would refuse. Agree on that list before a big deal tests it.
How the test works
The test asks 30 questions across 8 dimensions. The topics come from YC's list of 10 questions to discuss with a potential co-founder and from First Round Review's 50-question co-founder questionnaire. Each question has 3 or 4 answers, in order from one end of the dimension to the other.
Each founder answers alone. YC tells founders to write their answers independently and then discuss them. Gloria Lin, whose questionnaire First Round published, gives the same advice.
For most questions, the gap is the number of steps between your two answers, divided by the largest possible number of steps. The same answer gives a gap of 0. Answers at opposite ends give a gap of 1.
The role questions work the other way. Two builders leave nobody to sell, so that pair gets a large gap. The gap is small when one of you leans toward building and the other leans toward distribution.
The CEO question pairs opposite answers. "I should be" fits with "my co-founder should be". Two founders who both want the role get a full gap.
A dimension's alignment is 100 minus the average gap on its questions, as a percentage. The overall alignment is the average of the 8 dimension scores. The topics to discuss first are the 5 questions with the largest gaps.
Where your answers go
Your answers become a string of 30 digits after the # sign in the link. Browsers do not send that part of a link to a server. If you ask for the email, the server rebuilds the report from those digits, sends it once and keeps nothing.
What the test does not do
The score compares two sets of answers. It does not predict whether a company succeeds. YC says that no questionnaire replaces a lot of time spent together in person. Use the results as an agenda, and then do a trial project together.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a co-founder compatibility test?
It is a set of questions that two founders answer on their own. Then you compare the answers. The test shows where you agree and where you see the company in different ways. This test has 30 questions across 8 dimensions, from risk and money to roles and conflict.
What questions should you ask a potential co-founder?
Ask about goals, roles, money, time and how you make decisions. YC's guide lists 10 core topics. They include who is CEO, how you split equity, your personal finances and what happens if you stop working together. This test covers most of them. Equity has its own calculator.
How do we take the test together?
One founder answers and copies the invite link. The other founder opens the link and answers the same questions. Their partner's answers stay hidden until they finish. Then you both see the same results page.
Do you store our answers?
No. Your answers live in the link, after the # sign. Browsers do not send that part of a link to a server. If you ask for the email, we use your answers to build that one email. We do not save them.
How is the alignment score calculated?
Each question has 3 or 4 answers in order. The gap on a question is the distance between your two answers. On the role questions, you score well when one of you leans toward building and the other toward distribution. A dimension's score is 100 minus the average gap, as a percentage. The overall score is the average of the 8 dimensions.
What is a good co-founder compatibility score?
The test has no pass mark. A pair can score 90 and still split over one big question, such as when to sell. Read the topics to discuss first, and agree on each one in writing.
Why do co-founder disagreements matter so much?
Noam Wasserman of Harvard Business School studied data on more than 10,000 founders for The Founder's Dilemmas. In his analysis of failures in VC portfolios, 65% came from people problems, such as tension between co-founders. This test helps you raise those topics before you commit.
What is cofounder dating?
Cofounder dating is a trial period before you commit to a partner. Gloria Lin met six potential co-founders over a year before she picked one. YC recommends a trial project together. The founders of Kiwi Biosciences answered all 50 First Round questions and then ran a month-long trial.