Co-Founder Breakups Rarely Start With Strategy. They Start With an Expired Deal Nobody Renewed

The co-founder relationship is the single most under-maintained asset in most growing companies.

EXPERT OPINION BY TONY MARTIGNETTI

Illustration: Inc; Photo: Adobe Stock

When two founders part ways, there is a story they tell the team, and a story that is actually true, and they are rarely the same story. The official version is almost always about vision. We wanted different things. We grew apart on strategy. We had philosophical differences about the direction of the company. It is dignified, vague, and lets everyone save face. In my experience working with founders, it is usually a cover for something far more ordinary and far more heartbreaking: two people who fit together perfectly at 10 employees never stopped to renegotiate who they were to each other at a 100 employees. The company changed underneath them, their roles changed underneath them, and the relationship that governed........

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