4 Tips to Prevent Co-founders Disagreements and Fights
This article is a practical follow-up on previously published: How Co-founder Disagreements Led to Company Failure (or not?).
I start with this — it is crucial to document your expectations and agreements upfront to effectively work with co-founders, especially if you are not familiar with each other.
Even if you have known each other for a long time or have worked together before, writing things down is still a good practice to ensure everyone is on the same page.
What you should document and discuss
Mutual understanding of basic cornerstones for your cooperation and business can serve you a long way. Rather than going into great detail about every possible scenario, focus on key aspects such as:
Clearly defining each co-founder’s area of responsibility
- What will you work on?
- What results are you responsible for?
Determining the amount of time each co-founder will commit to the business weekly and monthly
- this is so key, I can’t stress it enough! There will be differences on day to day basis, but they should smooth out over time.
Developing a plan to handle situations where a co-founder is unable to fulfill their time commitment
- again very crucial to know how you will balance your contributions and what you will do when there’s work to be done, which is stalling.
- Will you contribute additional funds to hire someone to cover the work?
- Will you temporarily limit the share of the upside? Or will you do nothing?
- You don’t have to do anything; it’s totally up to you, but make sure you’re comfortable with the agreed path.
Way of resolving potential disagreements on essential matters
- Matters like the company’s direction or client work, especially if shares, responsibilities, and time allocations are unequal.
- I’m not talking about describing every possible scenario! No way!
- I’m talking about a mental exercise where you find an acceptable way for all co-founders to resolve major decision conflicts.
Let me give you examples:
- Imagine you can’t agree with your co-founders on pricing: are we going for premium or budget pricing?
- Or do you disagree about bringing a strategic partner on board for 20% share?
- What will you do?
Try to find and describe a process that you will be ok to use to get to the final decision. When that decision is made, everyone commits to it, even if they initially disagree.
It’s easier than it looks
This may look like a lot, but you can draft this in 30 minutes over a beer or pizza. The sooner you do it, the faster it will go — optimism is always running high early on!
By establishing these expectations upfront, you can minimise misunderstandings and ensure a smoother working relationship with your co-founders.
You can also stop early if you see that it might not work out well because your expectations are just too different.
Last tip — a side project
One last tip: starting by treating your venture as a side project is a good de-risking approach when you are not well-acquainted with your co-founders.
I definitely wish you a stroke of good luck!
And if you ever encounter issues down the road with your co-founders or partners, don’t despair. If it gets really bad, consider using a mediator to get you all back on track.
I’ve done mediator work a few times, so reach out to see if I can help. (link to Tidycal booking page)
