This is the first part of a two part series. The second part will obviously be: what to look for in technical cofounders. This post is something that I’ve been meaning to write for a while, but after reading two nonsense articles on Hacker News this evening I was immediately prompted to write this. A startup is a lot of work and no one skillset can handle it all. When you’re bootstrapped, with little funding, and working against the clock, each individual needs to be laser focused on what they are best at. A well trained technical cofounders should be handling the engineering side of things and a well trained business cofounder should be handling the business side of things. So if you’re a technical cofounder and you need a business cofounder or have been approached by a potential business cofounder, here are the things that I would look at.

1. A good level of technical understanding

Too many business co-founder types have no technical understanding at all. If you’re in the software business you should understand the technical end of things, just as if you’re in the biotech business, you should have a good understanding of science. They should have an idea of how products are built, not be afraid of code speak, specifications, and architectural decisions. Startups are like cyborgs, where the technology is so interwoven with the business side of things, that separating the two out would just kill it. Make sure your business cofounder has a strong grasp on technology. They will not be able to make the proper business decisions without this.

I was catching up over coffee and a muffin with a student I hadn’t seen for years who’s now CEO of his own struggling startup.  As I listened to him present the problems of matching lithium-ion battery packs to EV powertrains and direct drive motors, I realized that he had a built a product for a segment of the electric vehicle market that possibly could put his company on the right side of a major industry discontinuity.

I find that the initial decision to start a venture and the motivations around it are areas that are very rarely discussed. Perhaps it’s a boring topic, or perhaps the information or reasons are considered too self-evident to be worth a look. But my experience coaching a number of new and even repeat entrepreneurs I do run across these questions, so maybe I’m not the only one.

You’re starting a company? First off, congrats! – mazeltov! – ¡enhorabuena! – уra!

Starting a venture, whether full-time, part-time, small or large, is an act of courage and a commitment to effort, and I do believe everyone is a winner at this stage. Now, the next step that’s usually brought up at this point is analyzing the startup’s chances of success. Team, product, market sizing, revenue model… and those are all great and topics covered often (tho I reserve the right to blog my spin on them But I want to not skip over something important: the why.

Previously, I highlighted the legal aspects of structuring founder agreements. These are indeed very important but it is even more important to underscore that any agreement can be modified if the parties involved agree to do so. Therefore, a non-confrontational, positive approach is always the best way for a founding team to approach removing a co-founder. It is better to err on the side of being reasonable and generous to make things simple, quick and not get into legal disputes.

(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This column originally appeared on his blog.)

When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves the following series of questions:

• Are you comfortable with chaos? (Startups are disorganized)
• Are you comfortable with uncertainty? (Startups never go per plan)
• Are you resilient? (At times you will fail – badly.  How quickly will you recover?)
• Are you agile? (You may find the real opportunities for your company are somewhere else.  Can you recognize and capitalize on them?)
• Are you creative? / Can you recognize patterns? (Can you think “out of the box?” Or if not, can you recognize patterns others miss?)
• Are you Passionate (Is the company/product/customers the most important thing in your life? 24/7?)
• Are you tenacious (Can you keep going when everyone else gives up? Can you keep giving 200 percent despite all the naysayers who don’t believe in your idea?)
• Are you articulate? (Can you create a reality-distortion field and have others see and share your vision and passion?)

Even if they answer yes to every question, I remind them that they should be bringing some type of domain expertise (technical or business) to the table.

This is the minimum feature set for founders.

Generic advice given to entrepreneurs assumes that everyone is going to be the founder/co-founder. Yet for every founder there are 10-20 other employees who take the near-equivalent risks in joining an early-stage company.  If you’re not a founder (by choice, timing or temperament,) you may be an early employee or a later stage startup employee.

(And my advice to students who believe they want to do a startup but are unsure if they want to start one, is to join one that’s already raised their first round of funding. Founders know they want to start something.  If you’re unsure, you’ve just decided.)

I believe that founder, early and later stage employees each require different risk/personality profile.

The Early Employee

If you’re a founder/co-founder all the attributes I mentioned above are needed in spades.  However, if you want to join a startup as an early employee (say in the first batch of 25), you can modify the list above.

You still need to be comfortable with chaos and uncertainty, but by this time the major risk of where the first round of funding is coming from is gone.  However, you will be dealing with almost daily change, (new customer feedback/insights from a Customer Development process and technical roadblocks,) as the company searches for a repeatable and scalable business model. This means you still need to have a resilient personality, and be agile.

Early stage employees are “self-starters” and show initiative rather than waiting for other people to tell them what to do or how to do it. (You may be wearing multiple hats in one-day.) You have to be passionate about your work, the company and its mission to be working 24/7. But more than likely you don’t need to be as articulate or creative as the founders (they’re doing the talking, while you’re doing the work.)  And while you do need to be tenacious, you won’t need to be the last man standing if the ship goes down.

The Later Employee

If you want to join a startup as a later employee (say employee number 25-125, before the company is profitable) you can continue to modify the list above.

You still need to be comfortable with chaos and uncertainty.  And you will be dealing with change, but it won’t be the constant daily change the early employees dealt with. By now the company may have found and settled on a repeatable business model. And at this stage of the company rather than everyone doing everything, actual departments may begin to form. However, job responsibilities and organizations will change regularly and you need to feel comfortable in embracing those changes and taking responsibility and ownership.

And you’ll still need to have a resilient and agile personality, as new customer and product opportunities will appear and change your work.  But it won’t be happening daily.  And while you still need to love what you do your passion doesn’t have to extend to tattooing the company’s logo on your arm.

Take the time and think through who you are and what level of challenge you are looking for.

You’re not joining a big company.  Startups are the adventure of a lifetime – but make sure it fits who you are.