I would have said humility and confidence, but none of the panelists said that: http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/15/vc-roundtable-what-makes-a-great-founder/

They mention qualities like vision, self-awareness, creativity, and ability to sell.

I still think confidence and humility are the most important qualities in a great founder. It's a tough combination to find; I've met humble founders who should be more confident, but in general most founders should be more humble.

A second opinion: Ben Horowitz looks for brains and courage. http://bhorowitz.com/2011/08/08/the-fine-line-between-fear-and-courage/

If you're going to go down the Yellow Brick Road with Brains and Courage, don't you also need Heart?

@heart best quote of the day.

Thank you. Heart is not just an 80's Hair Band.

Heart matters to your team:

"...results showed that leader positive moods not only directly enhanced team performance, but also indirectly led to improved team performance through the explicit mediating process (i.e., transformational leadership) and the implicit mediating process (i.e., positive group affective tone)..."

Power can be a bad thing for a leader:

"...we argue that a leader’s experience of heightened power produces verbal dominance, which reduces perceptions of leader openness and team open communication. Consequently, there is a negative effect of leader power on team performance. "

A balance between assertiveness and passivity is key:

"... individuals seen either as markedly low in assertiveness or as high in assertiveness are generally appraised as less effective leaders... The authors linked the curvilinear effects of assertiveness to under-lying tradeoffs between social outcomes (a high level of assertiveness worsens relationships) and instrumental outcomes (a low level of assertiveness limits goal achievement..."

If there's a tradeoff between power and performance, what is the proper way for a leader to employ power?

Humility and confidence are not mutually exclusive, but often seem at odds. I wonder if the life experiences that tend to create confident people weed out the humility?

Certainly, not many people exude both.

I think on the ends of that spectrum are megalomaniacs. They simultaneously hold both an inferiority complex and a grandiose view of their own power and influence. I've known a few executives like that, but luckily not founders.

I've known founders who both had an inferiority complex and were narcissistic. Some of them are quite successful BECAUSE people got swept up in their star power.

Charisma does not mean the person has character.

@ifindkarma A great flounder is a great founder gone to L.