If you're not in college and you don't know a cofounder, the next best thing I think is to go work at an interesting company.

Great execution towards a terrible idea will get you nowhere.

In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.

You need someone that behaves like James Bond more than you need someone that is an expert in some particular domain.

Another way of looking at this, is that the best companies are almost always mission oriented.

Really dig into projects people have worked on and call references; that is another thing that first time founders like to skip.

I care much more about the growth rate of the market than it's current size and I also care if there's any reason it's going to top out.