Methodology
What our tools are built on
Research on one side, real-world experience on the other.
The Mirror
What the Mirror test measures
Your destination
What you really want to build: how big you're aiming, your appetite for risk, how much of your life the company takes up, what you'd do if it succeeds or fails. Two cofounders can agree on the product and still be aiming for different destinations. That's often where the hardest disagreements start.
You under pressure
How you react when things get tense: confront, avoid, give in, negotiate or look for a shared solution. It's not a flaw or a strength, it's a reflex. Knowing it means knowing what's likely to happen the day you disagree.
Where the questions come from
Research
The FOALED model (McCarthy et al., 2023), derived from the Big Five, which identifies founder profiles based on personality traits. Complemented by Noam Wasserman's work on founders' dilemmas and by the Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode model.
The field
About ten cofounder teams we've worked with closely over the past year: at the start, along the way, and sometimes at the end.
How we get to your profile
The Mirror has 24 questions, 15 of them about your temperament. Each answer moves one or more traits. We then compare your combination of traits to six founder profiles and keep the one you're closest to, plus the runner-up. The profile that complements you follows from that result. Your destination and the way you handle disagreement are scored separately, from their own questions. Scoring happens on our servers, not in your browser. See the six profiles ↓
The six profiles
Six founder profiles, drawn from the FOALED model. Nobody fits one perfectly: everyone is closer to one than the others, often with a nuance. None is better than another, and each calls for a complement.
The Leader
A taste for adventure, calm under pressure. Carries the vision and takes the lead.
Complement: The Developer
The Developer
Between product and people. Brings others along and moves things forward together.
Complement: The Operator
The Accomplisher
Rigor and social ease. Turns an intention into a plan, then into results.
Complement: The Architect
The Operator
Order and reliability. Keeps the machine running without seeking the spotlight.
Complement: The Developer
The Architect
Depth and imagination. Gets to the bottom of the problems others work around.
Complement: The Leader
The Fighter
Instinct, tenacity, skepticism. Makes calls fast, takes the hits, never lets go.
Complement: The Operator
The small radar shows the typical profile across five traits: openness, rigor, extraversion, cooperation, stability.
The Duo
A cross-analysis of two profiles · Duo Report, in private beta
What the Duo does
The perfect cofounder doesn't exist. The right cofounder is one where you both know where the friction will be, and how to defuse it. The Duo cross-matches your two profiles to show you the few places where your differences are likely to cause friction, and what each of you can do, from your own profile, to keep it from escalating.
We start from a conviction: a cofounder partnership is closer to an arranged marriage than to love at first sight. Fit is chosen, and worked on. That's why the report doesn't give a compatibility score, doesn't deliver a verdict, and never points to one of you as the problem. It describes the dynamics between two people.
What you answer
You each answer separately: about ten minutes if you've already taken the Mirror, fifteen otherwise. On top of the Mirror's questions, there are eight statements to refine your temperament, two questions about your destination, four disagreement scenarios, three questions about roles (the one you want, the one you refuse, who should lead), and a module on your concrete expectations: commitment, how long you can go without a salary, who gets the final say, the equity split, your time horizon and your pace. For roles and for these six topics, you give your answer, then the one you think your cofounder will give. The gap between the two matters as much as the answers themselves.
How we cross-match your two profiles
The report doesn't calculate an overall score. It looks, dimension by dimension, at where you're alike: temperament, destination, disagreement reflexes. Being alike is neither better nor worse; it just changes the work to be done. Then it applies rules that detect three kinds of friction:
- Structural: you're not aiming for the same finish line, you want the same seat, or your expectations on equity, power or commitment diverge. To be settled before you sign anything.
- Relational: how your disagreement reflexes play off each other, and the unspoken agreements each of you assumes are shared.
- Temperament: traits that are far apart, or a blind spot you share.
Each friction has a level (good to know, needs tools, priority). The report shows all of them, from most serious to least, each with its own toolkit. It also shows where you're in sync, where you work the same way, along with the flip side: when two people see things the same way, nobody plays devil's advocate.
Where the rules come from
Research
Noam Wasserman's work on destination and equity splits between founders. The FOALED model (McCarthy et al., 2023) on founder profiles and their complementarity. Research on couples (Dyrenforth et al., 2010; Malouff et al., 2010), applied to cofounders, and on teams (Bell, 2007). The Thomas-Kilmann model for disagreement reflexes.
The field
The frictions we've seen in the partnerships we've supported: agreements never said out loud, horizons drifting apart, paces that wear people down. Every friction in the report cites its source.
Your data, in the Duo
The report only exists if you both consent, and only the two of you can access it, each through a personal link. Each of you sees the other's profile and their answers on expectations; detailed Mirror answers stay private. Either of you can withdraw consent at any time, and the report then disappears for both of you.
Your data
We keep your answers and your result, plus your email address if you share it to receive your report. They're kept for 3 years after your last contact with us. You can ask us to delete them at any time by writing to hello@allyordie.com. Details in our privacy policy.
Further reading
- McCarthy et al., "The impact of founder personalities on startup success", Scientific Reports 13, 17200, 2023.
- Noam Wasserman, The Founder's Dilemmas, Princeton University Press, 2012.
- Kenneth W. Thomas and Ralph H. Kilmann, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, 1974.
- Dyrenforth, Kashy, Donnellan and Lucas, "Predicting relationship and life satisfaction from personality in nationally representative samples from three countries", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 99(4), 2010.
- Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Schutte, Bhullar and Rooke, "The Five-Factor Model of personality and relationship satisfaction of intimate partners: A meta-analysis", Journal of Research in Personality 44(1), 2010.
- Suzanne T. Bell, "Deep-level composition variables as predictors of team performance: A meta-analysis", Journal of Applied Psychology 92(3), 2007.