Guy Turner of Hyde Park Venture Partners joins Nick to cover founder profiles and the characteristics that lead to the strongest startups. We address questions including:

• You've observed over 50 startups, across your portfolio, and have written extensively about founder profiles. What are the two high-level categories of characteristics that you've observed?
• Within the inspection characteristics category... what are the three dimensions that matter most?
• The first two modes seem to differ primarily on the experience dimension... what are the two modes and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Mode 3 you call the exec turned founder.... and mode 4 seems to have the ingredients for big outcomes or big flameouts. Walk us through each of these and their defining characteristics.
• We've discussed four modes, but based on your framework there should be eight. What about the other four modes?
• Do you think modes 1 and 2 work better for all investors or just HPVP?
• Dealflow filtering and evaluation... can you use the inspection characteristics?
• So we've discussed the inspection characteristics... let's transition to the the second major category, the experience characteristics. Talk more about what they are and how you assess them.
• What are the five actions that matter most in startup teams?
• How do you handle a situation where the deal comes late and there's already a term sheet and you don't have time to observe these characteristics over time?
• What are the five styles that matter most?
• Self-reflection, do you and Ira and Tim look in (Read more...)