Watch: What qualities do investors look for in founders?

What Qualities do Investors Look for in Founders?

Ben Armstrong, Managing Partner, Archangel
One of the most important features of founder is perseverance because the startup journey is often nonlinear and often involves you having to pivot

Jason Ming, Cofounder & Managing Partner, Trampoline
Knowing that it’s going to be sometimes a very long journey and knowing that they’re going to go distance.

Kate Coffey, Investment Manager, AirTree
When I’m chatting to founders, the thing that I’m asking myself the whole time is, is this someone I would want to work for?

Nicole Kleid Small, Partner, The Planet Fund
Someone who’s really visionary and who can really um look to what the future’s going to be. that ability to look to the future and probably tell the story of what the future is going to be like too.

Noel Paul, Director, Investments, Breakthrough Victoria
Resilience and clarity of thought. You might not have all the answers to the questions that investors ask you today, but having the clarity of thought to explain that this is the pathway that I’ll follow to get to those answers is highly valued.

Paul Naphtali, Cofounder & Managing Partner, Rampersand
High agency people who’ve got, you know, real drive to solve a problem and to create a reality that doesn’t exist yet. They learned quickly, but they also got a very strong internal sense of self and their own capabilities.

Rachel Yang, Partner, Giant Leap
That drive to be doing their life’s work. So that mission driven founder, we’re really looking to back.