Kevin Kinsella, founder of Avalon Ventures, along with other VCs of respective firms, recently shared traits they believed to be vital to successful founding teams. Although the VCs came from different firms, all put an emphasis on the importance of the founding team as the key to a successful company. From their combined insights, three valuable traits of a founding team emerged: determination, intelligence and passion.

1. Determination

Because startups face an ample share of adversity, founders must first be determined and willing to play David against the oncoming Goliaths. All VCs looked for the determined founder, the one they know will be able to face, “the long odds against success,” said Kinsella.

2. Intelligence

While intelligence might seem obvious, there is no substitute for expertise. The founding team must be intelligent, “smarter than the average bear” said Kinsella. It is about more than knowing the market — it is about knowing that you are the best at something and working to prove it.

3. Passion

Passion is not only necessary to build a great company, but to get others to share the vision. It requires that an entrepreneur, “marshal a vision, get other co-founders to share it, convince relatives or venture capitalists to back it financially and implement it, working day and night and on weekends to make it happen,” Kinsella said.

The VC industry is a truthful one; companies either succeed or they fail. The “founding team is more important than the idea itself,” said Kinsella, and VCs favor founding teams that they know have each of these qualities in good supply.
This is a summary of, “The three things VCs value most in founding teams.” You can read the full article on TechRepublic, written by Conner Forrest, published on August 6th 2014.