Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures share what he looks for in Entrepreneurs | 2011

Successful entrepreneurship hinges on the combination of deep product expertise and evangelical leadership. Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist with nearly three decades of experience, identifies the "DNA" of a great founder as someone who possesses an intuitive ability to manage, fix, and own the product vision, even without formal technical coding skills. This product-centric focus must be paired with a persuasive, almost "cult-like" personality capable of inspiring blind faith in others. This evangelical quality is essential for recruiting talent, securing investors, and building a user base from nothing. Figures like Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley exemplify this archetype, demonstrating how a founder’s ability to inspire a team and articulate a vision is as critical to a company's long-term success as the technical execution of the product itself.