It is pretty common to hear the title of co-founder a lot more than the founder in the business world. It is almost as people have been led to believe that the startup community cannot exist without the need of partners. It happens because today’s businesses involve two to four partners for building startups. Bringing a co-founder can increase your chances of success but no doubt a bad co-founder can bring an outright failure to it. So how can you pick up a reliable partner when you are set to establish a startup?

Following are the key qualities you should be looking for that can make a difference in determining a reliable co-founder for your business.

• Skills complimentary to yours:

For a business partner, you need to find someone who is not a clone of you. A person who is more talented and more focused than you and is more confident when dealing with customers is an ideal for your business. According to experts, for a startup, there is a small team that is working. As an owner, you need to have someone who brings something new to the table and can handle distinct responsibilities.

• Niche-specific experience:

In order to help guide a company’s development, you need someone who brings niche-specific experience for solving issues. When founders are building something to solve an issue they have experienced earlier, they are more connected to that problem and understand it better. This is a very common trait that is needed for a successful founding team.

• Level-headed with emotions:

It is natural that initially you will be captivated by the knowledge and expertise of your partner. But it is important to remember, that in business times can become pretty hard. All business partners fight at some point and there is no escaping it. The issue is how the person responds to you when there is a disagreement. The person should be calm and cool headed in stressful situations so that it does not bring any destruction to the company.

• Equal share:

When a startup develops, equity conversations create a lot of tension. Your company’s success lies in the future. The equity can make a big difference for the long-term health of your relationship with the co-founder. So keep the equity spit on an equal level.

Via: Entrepreneur