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Ask HN: Worries about a cofounder
Hi Everyone--
I was hoping to seek council about a situation at a very, very early stage startup. This is, btw a throwaway account.
Long story, trying to be short:
I asked a friend about 6 months ago (another programmer) to work with me on a startup. We began meeting and tossed around some ideas that we were interested in. We came up with 3 ideas that we think could be a good place to start. At the same time another friend (a coworker of ours) and I had lunch and he said he wanted to get working on a side project. He is a good guy; pretty smart, nice and seemed, at the time, passionate. Definitely a businessman (project manager) and not a coder. I suggested he meet with me and my original friend. We began meeting weekly to discuss a startup venture. We settled on one of my original ideas, though the project manager guy focused it in on a specific niche inside of our market.
Fast forward 6 months -- the business guy is still interested, but after having another kid, missing a bunch of meetings and just waiting for us to actually build the product, I'm questioning his motives for joining. We met earlier this week and his focus was on getting us, inside a year, to a position where we could sell for a couple hundred thousand dollars. The other founder and I said we'd prefer to see about getting a couple thousand from very early round friends and family so that we can hook up with some big name partners in our field early on. We're in it for the long haul; we'd prefer to build something, run it for a while, and sell later. Not build and sell immediately.
So the question is, my gut is telling me to drop the project manager. I don't feel he is passionate about the project enough and is in it for the short term benefits as opposed to the long term. We haven't signed anything or spent any money; didn't even discuss titles, rights or what not. So we (my friend and I) could walk away safely, I think.
Is this a situation where I should trust my gut?
- mnemonik 17y agoSounds like you have already made your decision.
- tossAwayEast 17y agoMy gut has. But I'm hoping to gain insight about the "nerves" of cofounders and if this is normal or whathaveyou.
- olefoo 17y agoYeah, it's normal, telling someone that you've worked with closely that they aren't working out sucks; but you have to do it. If you don't it's a drain on you and your company when you can least afford it.
- hga 17y agoIndeed. One of the things I try to figure out about a startup I'm considered working for is "can they fire people?" Because while making a wrong founder/hiring decision is often fatal, it becomes much closer to surely fatal if you don't have what it takes to correct it. (And it is hard.)
- tossAwayEast 17y agoI hear that. Worked at a startup where that just couldn't be done and it damn near killed me. That being said, is it an indicator that as a founder not having what it takes to fire someone can be closely related to just not having what it takes to be a founder in general?
- hga 17y agoI wouldn't think so ... but this is so disabling in and of itself that I would think that doesn't really matter. It would depend on the reason, e.g. an inability to make hard decision is much worse than an inability to do a necessary but cruel thing.
- bg4 17y agoAn emphatic yes and the sooner the better. I was in the same situation and it cost us dearly because we let it drag on for way too long (a co-founder systematically not completing work and talking often of short term sell/profits).
- tossAwayEast 17y agoI'm sorry to hear that you went through something like, this but I'll be glad to learn from your experience.
- chriseidhof 17y agoDo you really need him? If not, ditch the guy: it's already hard enough making good decisions with the two of you. It sounds like there's quite a lot of negative energy going on: I would focus that energy on building your product, not on dealing with partners who are only in it as a no-risk sideproject.
- maxdemarzi 17y ago"could sell for a couple hundred thousand dollars" Start-ups are high risk, high reward and ton of WORK endeavors. The PM is treating it like a high risk, low reward, no work endeavor. Has he put in a ton of work into this? Did he pass up opportunities to do something else because of this? No? Then he doesn't fit.