Choosing a Co-Founder [Without Losing Your Mind]

If you can’t trust someone, does it even matter how qualified they are?

Photo by Elena Taranenko on Unsplash

Different people look for different things in a co-founder. Whether you’re after their technical knowledge, industry experience, or professional contacts, getting lost in someone’s credentials can sometimes do more harm than good.

We naturally assume that the more information we have, the more likely we are to make the right choice. In reality, our brains don’t work that way; scientists have been trying to tell us for decades now. In their study, On the Pursuit and Misuse of Useless Information, Anthony Bastardi and Eldar Shafir found that mortgage officers have a harder time seeing the big picture after seeking out additional details on a potential loan applicant. They found that:

The pursuit of missing information leads the decision maker to focus on it more than if it had been directly available.