I just went through a breakup of a startup project I'd been working on for almost two years with near complete strangers. I've been a serial startup guy for 15

I just went through a breakup of a startup project I'd been working on for almost two years with near complete strangers. I've been a serial startup guy for 15 years. The thing I've learned is that contracts are not just paper you sign. You need to take all of the time you can to make sure the partners know what they are signing and handle the risks for everyone involved well. To be truthful, the long contract writing period with this deal probably ate up a lot of valuable runway but they understood what they signed and when it had to break up, it wasn't that big of a deal. It's possible the wreckage can be salvaged and most importantly, no one's life was ruined. I hope to try to work with them again in the future. Usually everyone means well. Most of the time people think they know what they intend to do but don't. Sometimes people are predatory scumbags. I like working with predatory scumbags because the contracts are easier. It's people who really, really like and trust you, so much that they have a hard time being honest with themselves. That's when it's tempting to not put the effort in and when it crashes and burns, it does so real hard. People ponzi scheme themselves all the time. Do the messy work up front! Good contracts make good co-founders. You can always slow down. It's ok to lose some first mover advantage. Make sure you know what you're getting into and make sure they do too as best as you can. Plan out what happens in the failure conditions as clearly as you possibly can. Be weary of people who do not want to do that.