Lose That Co-founder and Save Your Startup
When a business relationship sours, it’s not a relationship worth saving
I’m a total team player. But even after 20+ years and 14 startups, I’ve never been a co-founder. Not once.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against co-founding. I’ll say again, I’m a team player. I like having at least one other person to work with on an ongoing basis, someone who understands and is as passionate about what we’re trying to accomplish as I am. In fact, as we grow, I want to surround myself with those kinds of people.
But I also know that leadership, true leadership, is lonely as hell.
When decisions need to be made in the name of an organization —decisions with consequences that might not go over well with everyone affected but need to be strongly defended and firmly held — those decisions can’t be made by a committee, or by a team, or by a panel.
When big, ugly decisions get made by committee, and you’re lacking buy-in from one or more members of the side that lost the decision-making vote, you’re setting yourself up for potential failure, potential future gridlock, and definite disgruntlement.
And God forbid, if ever one of those committee-made decisions becomes unpopular and one or more representatives of that…
