At the start of his post, Ben Horowitz delineates between between "Important business partners" and "true friends". The problem with the consensus argument her

At the start of his post, Ben Horowitz delineates between between "Important business partners" and "true friends". The problem with the consensus argument here on HN that "if the other CEO no longer wants to be friends then it was a lousy friendship to begin with" is that we're talking about the former distinction. IE it never was a 'friendship' friendship to begin with. In other words, it's not that the other CEO is no longer going to have you over for Thanksgiving Dinner but that you may now have strategically pissed of a valuable strategic partner. Too many variables really to be able to cover a blanket one-size-all rule but I do think I would pass if the employee was in a vital role at a key vendor that would seriously damage my business if the vendor re-negotiated terms or withdrew service. Which they could in spite or even simply out of a perceived new conflict of interest with IP transfer in the hire.