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What Balaji Srinivasan looks for in the founders he backs
“You’re really looking for people who are very fast, very resourceful, very positive… And obviously high intelligence, work ethic, all that type of stuff, but I think the positivity thing [is really important].”
As Balaji explains, startups are so hard and you need to be positive and resilient.
“Lots of people will break if you put enough pressure on them and you don’t really know who has titanium adamantium skeletons until that pressure actually arrives.”
He continues:
“As a VC, an investor, or an angel, what you really want to do is throw coins into a hot air balloon in the sense that you want to back somebody who has independent lift and who’s going to take off on their own… The money is a help but it’s not even necessary for you to do it. They would be able to do it even with you. That’s a person who, as an investor, you want to bet on typically.”