In an early startup, there shouldn't be fiefdoms nor (intra-company) empire building. Everyone should be focused on the shared goal of the startup being succes

In an early startup, there shouldn't be fiefdoms nor (intra-company) empire building. Everyone should be focused on the shared goal of the startup being successful. What you're working on is triaged constantly, with everyone contributing what they can, learning as necessary. Everybody wins, or everybody loses. And if you don't work together as a team, it's probably the latter. (These are not just empty platitudes. For example, when I say everybody wins, that means I expect everyone to have meaningful equity shares -- not a successful exit makes the founders filthy rich, while everyone else gets a small consolation prize for contributing.) Behind the anecdote, there were unusual and complicated reasons that someone felt and did some things as they did. I tried to carve out a standalone piece for HN, without getting into the more sensitive and irrelevant stuff.