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Ask HN: Am I overvaluing my cofounder?
My co-founder is basically a stranger, which I thought I had got to know well enough in a month of "dating", before starting to work together on his b2c idea.
Our personalities are opposite yet complementary, and fitting to the role each of us has (me, tech: introverted, methodical - him, business: extroverted, chaotic, energetic).
We didn't "fall in love" immediately but we understood that setting our differences apart to work synergically and with his endless determination could get us far enough.
I've been building the product basically by myself for about 4 months while he has been (successfully) pitching and (unsuccessfully) trying to learn some Elixir, all while waiting for me to finish the ambitious product.
Once the excuse of incompleteness went out of the way, we were supposed to be starting to get the first users. He was in charge of the launch which went horribly, so we figured I should take over growth and branding as well and he should get back at pitching.
Now, on one hand we are close to sealing a sizeable pre-seed round, while on the other I'm sure he will not be able to contribute anything else until the next one.
My dilemma is whether it makes sense to endure his incompetence in every other field, get the VC money and lead the creation of a product I'm in love with, or just continue solo and try to learn the skills to overtake his role.
throwfaraway2 @ protonmail.ch
- chordalkeyboard 6y agoYes, he doesn’t seem to be contributing.
- uberman 6y agoIt is kind of impossible to say unless you provide a sense of what their compensation is. I do get the distinct impression though that you feel you would be better off without them and that is likely an important little voice to listen to. The worst case scenario will be that you have already given them 50% of the company (or any % really). Have you? You will certainly be required to articulate ownership explicitly as part of any "round".
- throwfaraway2 6y agoYes, we went for the standard 50:50 split as I was wishfully thinking he would have grown with the company. > [...] likely an important little voice to listen to. Right, probably I'm over-analyzing this and should just trust my guts
- kmos17 6y agoIt’s a tough one, i lucked out on my first co founder, we went 50:50 and it went really well, but we were both contributing heavily and both have very easy going personalities. On another one it was a complete disaster with a personality split not unlike what you describe, and the work load very unevenly split with me doing most of the work. I think I unfortunately went into that one a bit naively based on how well my first startup cofounder relationship had worked out. Following that I decided moving forward that unless dealing with someone I had already worked with, that it was best delaying the founder splits until I have a better understanding of how the other person performs. In my experience people do not really change, so yes your guts are probably a good early warning system you should listen to. Since you already did a 50:50 split, I think if I were in your situation, before doing anything else, especially any fundraising, I would lay out the issue with your cofounder and see if things can be worked out. You could for example both agree that additional contributions from you moving forward should be compensated with additional shares.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- GianFabien 6y agoYou wrote: "his b2c idea" -- so you are making "his idea" a reality. Ethically, you shouldn't go "solo". If you were to break-up and take the idea, he might go ballistic and sue you, etc. If you actually get the VC money, then perhaps you can get the VCs to see the reality and they might make favourable changes. It probably would be good for your track record to have a successful A-round, etc. Focus on what you are good at and don't spread yourself too thin doing tasks that should be outside your sphere. If you don't get the VC money and don't start generating revenue soon, then you really have to ask yourself whether you are giving your co-founder a free ride. Remember 50% of $0 is $0! That's the path for love of the product going sour, very sour.
- throwfaraway2 6y agoTrue, I might give him a couple more months for getting the money in the bank and see how things turn out after that.