Julie Barbier-Leblan, founder of a Merit Incentives, started solo but decided at the Series A stage that she needed a CTO co-founder with serious engineering leadership chops.
“When Thrishan joined us at Series A, it was more about expertise – that’s what we were looking for,” Julie explains. She specifically sought someone who “had been part of multiple startups, who understood what’s next and how to scale,” and who could “run the entire engineering team” so she could focus on other areas.
Julie’s skill gap was clear: she had industry knowledge and business acumen but needed a partner with deep experience in building tech at scale. By bringing in Thrishan, who had scaled tech at Careem, she filled the technical leadership gap and took the company to the next level.
Beyond hard skills, complementary backgrounds can also be invaluable. Founders often mention looking for someone “smarter than me” or with a different perspective.
Mohamed of Grubtech half-joked that the ideal second trait in a co-founder (after trust) is “someone smarter than I am.” Then he quickly added: “The second one is optional. The first is non-negotiable.”
What he meant is that having a co-founder who brings knowledge or talents you do not have is a big advantage — but only if trust is firmly in place.
In Mohamed’s case, he did find a co-founder with a complementary skill set:
“He comes from a private equity background… extremely financially savvy. I’m more on the tech and operations side. So it was a nice complement.”
That balanced pairing of finance and tech is a time-worn tradition by now.
Yet Mohamed reflects that even if they had not been so complementary, even if both came from the same background, they still would have figured it out because of the strength of their trust and shared vision.
“Would it have worked even if we had the same background and neither of us had the skill sets needed in the early days? Probably. We would’ve just hired for it,” he says.
This is a crucial insight: complementary skills matter, but they can never replace trust and alignment. Skills can be hired or learned. Trust cannot.
So while you should absolutely identify what you need in terms of capabilities, do not fall into the trap of choosing a co-founder just because their résumé fills a gap on paper. If the person is not a fit on more fundamental levels, that “perfect” skill match can lead to perfectly terrible outcomes.
The generalist mindset in the early days
Several founders also cautioned against being too rigid about roles in the early stages. In a true startup, everyone wears many hats.
“In general, it’s important for any founder to be a very good generalist in the early stage,” says Julie. “You’re going to do a lot of everything. You need to be able to jump from one topic to another, and learn fast.”
Early on, even if one of you is “the tech person” and the other “the business person,” both will likely dabble in everything from product to customer support to hiring to, yes, making PowerPoint decks.
Mostafa puts it more bluntly:
“At the beginning, you have to be a generalist. You can’t just be the best data scientist in the room… you have to do everything. You have to be ready to do anything, to learn anything.”
This generalist mentality is itself a trait to look for in a co-founder – someone who is without airs and graces, willing and eager to step outside their core skill zone when the startup needs it.
In Mostafa’s founding team of three, he recounts how at various times each of them switched roles entirely to plug gaps:
“I did all the fundraising. I was the driver. My co-founder was the customer experience agent… Then later, I had to focus on fundraising, so [my co-founders] shifted from customer experience and programming to last-mile operations. If I needed to jump back to customer experience, I would.”
In short, every co-founder has to be willing to roll up their sleeves and learn new skills on the fly.
A narrow specialist who refuses to step outside their lane can be a real liability in the volatile early days. You might think you’re the shit, and maybe you are, but in the beginning you simply haven’t done shit. So get off the high horse and get stuck in.
That said, as a startup gains traction, a clear division of responsibilities becomes more important, and that is where complementary expertise truly shines.
Julie’s case is instructive. She managed to get her company through the seed stage solo, with a small team, but recognised that to scale after Series A she needed an expert partner to lead engineering while she focused on growth and strategy.
She essentially “acqhired” her co-founder by first bringing him on as a consultant to assess the tech roadmap, then realizing he was the perfect fit to join full-time.
This underscores another point: sometimes the right co-founder may join later in the journey, once the needs are clearer. There is no one-size-fits-all timing. What matters is recognising the gap and finding someone you can trust and empower to own that domain.
Julie did not just get a CTO; she got someone she trusted enough to delegate an entire function to. As she says, it was about having–
“Someone I could completely rely on – his leadership, his ability to run the entire engineering team.”
Key takeaways
Identify your gaps: Be brutally honest about what key skills or experience you lack. Is it coding? Fundraising? Industry connections? This will focus your co-founder search (Eslam’s laser-focus on finding a data expert is a great example).
Prioritise critical, hard-to-hire skills: If a function is mission-critical and you can’t easily hire a senior employee for it due to early-stage or budget (e.g. CTO-level engineering leadership), that’s a strong candidate for a co-founder role.
Complement, don’t duplicate (unless necessary): Two founders with the exact same skill profile can leave blind spots. Ideally, your strengths and weaknesses mesh like puzzle pieces. However, if you deeply trust someone and they share your skillset, don’t dismiss them outright – you can always hire specialists and split roles in other ways. Trust and chemistry trump skill overlap concerns.
Generalist mindset early on: Make sure any potential co-founder, no matter their “domain expertise,” is ready to muck in on all aspects of the business. If your coding genius of a friend thinks they’ll just code 100% of the time while you do “the other stuff,” that could be a red flag. Early-stage co-founders must wear multiple hats and adapt constantly.
Evolve roles as you grow: Be prepared for how roles will change over time. Early days might be all-hands-on-deck for everything; later, you’ll divide and conquer. Look for a partner who not only complements your current needs, but can scale with the role. The right co-founder should have the potential to manage large responsibilities down the line (or at least the self-awareness to step aside for someone who can, if needed).
In short, finding a complementary co-founder is about balance.
Know what you need and what you don’t have – then find someone you respect enough to handle that realm completely.
But always remember the lesson our founders kept coming back to: a complementary skill set means little if the person isn’t aligned on deeper levels.
In the next section, we’ll explore how to ensure a promising co-founder actually is the right fit for the long haul, beyond just their CV or technical chops.
