Should I Know My Co-founder for Five Years?

Jesse Zhang says wanting the same things out of life matters more than knowing a co-founder for five years. Y Combinator tells founders to work with someone they have known for five years. He does not agree. The most important question is whether both people want the same things, are equally committed to being a founder, and want the same thing out of the company. When goals are not aligned, and he thinks they are not aligned for most founders, the partnership is going to be tough. After that comes whether the two operate at the same level. A long friendship can make alignment more likely, but alignment matters more than years of knowing each other.

He and his co-founder already had a lot of mutual friends. He knew one of his co-founder's previous co-founders, now one of the founders of Cognition. They met through mutual friends and officially started talking about a company at an Andreessen Horowitz offsite. Finding a co-founder is very luck based, closer to finding a spouse: the right person at the right time, and with enough opportunities he hopes someone fits. Joubin Mirzadegan counts his lucky stars for a similar match.