Interacting with people and building relationships makes me tick. Running a company requires great communication skills and requires that the partners are able to make amazing connections with people they need to meet. I’ve found myself meeting shy tech engineers at random events, and those are the ones very likely to fail. On the other hand, I’ve met so many non-geeky San Francisco engineers who need to get out of the office and socialize. Who said nerd stereotypes had to be true?

Brings me to my next point… I was looking for a technical co-founder for my company, and I met some really nerdy guys in the process. They might have been amazing coders, but their lame personalities drove me insane. I finally found this guy, Alex. He’s probably reading this blog post, but whatever: On our first meeting, I could tell that we’d click. He was by no means a stereotypical nerd. If the guy enjoys going out and having fun sometimes, he meets my social criteria for a co-founder.

All of the co-founders represent the company, and when it comes time to making business deals and raising venture capital, it really helps to be sociable. I can’t see anything more embarrassing than having to bring my super nerdy, boring, shy co-founder to a lunch with the people who can make and break our company.

Fact is, you’ll be spending a good part of your work life and possibly personal life with this co-founder. It’s a marriage, and once you propose and s/he agrees, you’re committed until the very end. How it ends depends heavily on the relationship. The end may be an acquisition by Google for a bagillion dollars or just a divorce that was inevitable.

So what should I say to the geeks who are reading this? Hmm… get yourself a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. <<< And thanks to Richard Yoo, Rackspace/Serverbeach for the amazing suggestion !

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She’s currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor.