The nature of the friendship needs to be aligned with the business. You need to share complementary passions and have the experience to follow through. You cann

The nature of the friendship needs to be aligned with the business. You need to share complementary passions and have the experience to follow through. You cannot take any of it personally. Lots of people don't want to admit that their business model or ideas are bad, they lack the skills to be a good leader, they have too much on their plate otherwise, or that they are just generally too immature to handle serious responsibility. That said, I had a decent experience at a startup while I was wrapping up my bachelor's degree. It wasn't always perfect, but no harm was done when some other people and I eventually left. The business was sold off years later. We helped build each other's careers and are all doing great now and still keep in touch. Things are what you make them. We didn't exactly strike it rich, but didn't expect to either. Having the right expectations is key. I would do it again with the same or similar people and if the details made sense.