So much career advice focuses on finding a great company to join. The problem is that most people are not particularly good at choosing companies — it’s hard to casually underwrite a company’s odds of one day succeeding (product-market fit, financials, competitors, etc.).
It is far easier to choose a great person. You have met many people in your life — does the founder of the company you are thinking of joining live up to your quality standards? Do they seem like the type of exceptional person that’s needed to lead the charge?
It turns out that founders, in particular, are incredibly influential in the outcome of a startup. So choosing the right one can make all the difference. (Right in this context does not simply mean smart — consider the type of person they are and try to think about how they may play out at scale. Are they trustworthy? Effective? Kind? Emotional? Smart? Determined? Greedy?
The only thing is that it’s not entirely obvious how you can go about obtaining detailed information about the founder. Not only the high-level stuff, but also the details. What type of person are they, really? What are they great at? What are they actually not so great at? What is a meeting with them like? What makes them tick? What is driving them? What is their why?
Companies solve this problem by doing “reference checks” on candidates. Good hiring managers go really deep — talking to something like 5 to 10 people (former managers, coworkers, friends) to get a transparent picture about the candidate.
You should have the same view. There should be a thing that does references on founders to really understand what makes them so special. That way people thinking of working with them (perhaps joining them or investing in them or partnering with them) can really know what and who they are betting on.
That’s the idea behind Next Play References.
We share behind-the-scenes stories of what it’d be like to be working with a particular founder.
- We talk to their coworkers, former managers, investors, personal friends, and life partners.
Our main priority is trying to understand what makes the founder truly unique. What makes them perhaps worth betting your career on? Why are they n of 1? Why are they special? Is their founder-problem fit? Is this going to be their life’s work?
We’re not investigative journalists—we conduct the interviews with the permission of the founder (in fact we disclose when relevant, but their companies often sponsor us for doing this sort of coverage because it helps shine a light in a constructive way).
Know a person we should dig into? Send us an email: hi@nextplay.so.