Outlander VC uses founder traits to hunt for unicorns

Outlander VC has built a 38-point system for judging founders before their companies show the usual signs of breakout growth, Fortune reported. The firm’s approach matters because early-stage investors often must decide whether to back a person long before a startup has clear market traction.

Paige Craig, Outlander’s founder and managing partner, and Leura Craig, who runs the firm with him, use the framework to evaluate every founder they consider, according to Fortune. The couple is looking less at credentials or startup aesthetics and more at whether an entrepreneur can keep making decisions under pressure.

Outlander has backed companies including SpaceX, Scale, Flock and Gusto, Fortune reported. The firm was also an early investor in Scale, whose founder Alexandr Wang later became Meta’s chief AI officer, according to Fortune.

Four categories guide the review

The framework sorts founder traits into four groups: vision, intelligence, character and execution, Fortune reported. Character and execution carry particular weight in the firm’s process.

The list has changed over time, according to Fortune. Paige and Leura Craig started with 14 characteristics in 2014, expanded the system to as many as 43 at one stage, and now use 38.

Leura Craig told Fortune the system is more than a checklist because the scoring method and review process shape how the investment team discusses founder quality. She said it gives the firm a common language for evaluating excellence.

Fortune reported that Outlander now has six employees and counts 18 unicorns in its portfolio. Leura Craig also pointed to drone software maker Havoc, valued at $750 million, as a company nearing that category, according to Fortune.

Questions go beyond the company pitch

Outlander’s founder review includes an initial short call, a longer call and a more extensive assessment, Paige Craig told Fortune. He said the process can run 15 to 20 hours and may cover a founder’s life history, family, faith, death and children.

The firm trains its team in 21 conversational techniques drawn from intelligence gathering, according to Fortune. Those methods include asking people to recount events in reverse order and building rapport deliberately, with the goal of moving beyond rehearsed answers.

Paige Craig brought military and intelligence-related experience to the process, Fortune reported. He served in the U.S. Marines and built Lincoln Group, a private intelligence company he later sold.

Character is a central test

The Craigs told Fortune they look for traits including obsession, fortitude, high optimism and a clear understanding of personal motivation. Fortune reported that those motivations can include mission or money.

Paige Craig described character to Fortune as the most predictive area for Outlander. He said the firm looks for people with enough endurance to survive hard periods and lead others through them, and he identified quitting too early as a major cause of failure in a startup’s first stages.

The firm also assesses what it calls irrational optimism, Fortune reported. Outlander wants founders who can believe in building a multibillion-dollar company while still recognizing setbacks and changing course when needed, according to the report.

Leura Craig told Fortune that choosing to become a founder means accepting repeated setbacks. In Outlander’s view, the founders most worth backing are the ones who can absorb those blows and keep acting.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.