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I don't know where one would get the assumption that you'll lose the friend if the business fails. If that is the case, you chose the wrong friend. ;) A failed

I don't know where one would get the assumption that you'll lose the friend if the business fails. If that is the case, you chose the wrong friend. ;) A failed startup (and a successful one, too) will obviously stress the friendship. But if you go in with a very close friend, or you become close very in the early days of constant work, your friendship will hopefully be strong enough that you'll tough it out and still be great friends regardless of the outcome. If you have a friend that you're that close with who's a good candidate for being a cofounder, that close relationship will be a huge asset. PG said somewhere that he prefers to invest in close friends because they'll stick it out even during "trough of sorrow" times because the friendship keeps them in it. It'll also make things more fun if you're putting in those long hours with someone that you enjoy spending time with. But you shouldn't choose a close friend that you wouldn't choose as a cofounder if you had just met them. It's very important that they be skilled and motivated enough that they're a real asset to the startup. ... My first startup hasn't even written a line of code yet (We're doing Node Knockout (http://nodeknockout.com/ http://nodeknockout.com/) this weekend and building the MVP as our entry.), so take that all with a grain of salt. But my cofounders are my close friend and his close friend, and I'm very happy about that.

buro9 16y ago
Friends won't always have the extremely honest and frank business conversations needed. I can give anecdotal evidence of this as I was lucky to work at a record label startup founded by friends. Both were 100% behind the company, but it took some 5 years to fully understand that 1 friend loved music (and saw the startup as a means to create the right environment for creative artists, viewing money as a side effect of that creativity) and the other loved money (and saw the startup as a means to create an environment in which to make money and viewed the creative process as a hindrance in the generation of product). It ended quite badly, the friendship was deeply affected by this and the signings reflected a pendulum shift from creativity to product creation. It has been argued that friendships will inhibit the asking of the kind of questions that would've rooted that out and in either scenario made it more successful, indeed that's my view of this one instance. So yes, friendship can be a real problem. Not that it's that black and white, friendships can also be a real boon as PG has mentioned it can be the difference that makes people stick with it through the harder times. So there's nothing conclusive either way. Depends on the people involved.

buro9 16y ago

Friends won't always have the extremely honest and frank business conversations needed. I can give anecdotal evidence of this as I was lucky to work at a record label startup founded by friends. Both were 100% behind the company, but it took some 5 years to fully understand that 1 friend loved music (and saw the startup as a means to create the right environment for creative artists, viewing money as a side effect of that creativity) and the other loved money (and saw the startup as a means to create an environment in which to make money and viewed the creative process as a hindrance in the generation of product). It ended quite badly, the friendship was deeply affected by this and the signings reflected a pendulum shift from creativity to product creation. It has been argued that friendships will inhibit the asking of the kind of questions that would've rooted that out and in either scenario made it more successful, indeed that's my view of this one instance. So yes, friendship can be a real problem. Not that it's that black and white, friendships can also be a real boon as PG has mentioned it can be the difference that makes people stick with it through the harder times. So there's nothing conclusive either way. Depends on the people involved.