Beating the Co-Founder Blues

The simple truth behind successful co-founder relationships.

Being a co-founder can be absolutely fantastic. By having a partner, you avoid many of the pitfalls that founders often face. You have a sounding board for ideas, a source of support who understands everything you’re going through, and a capable set of hands to help you take on the incredible amount of work it takes to start a successful business. And of course, for your co-founder, you provide all of these things as well.

It’s really a beautiful system… until it isn’t. Call it the co-founder blues, a 12-bar refrain that inevitably leads to frustration, heartache, and the occasional buyout.

These blues come because there are simply too many decisions that need to be made as the business scales up, and it’s incredibly rare for two (or more) people to be on the same page for each and every one of them.

Disagreements are perfectly healthy, but over time, the disagreements between co-founders have a way of festering into something more. After all, as a founder and entrepreneur, the success of your business is one of the most important things in your life.

That’s an incredible amount of pressure, and when things don’t work out the way you want them to, it’s easy to place blame on the co-founder who altered your course. Easy, but unhealthy.

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