I think oftentimes "firing" is the wrong way to look at this. I founded my startup with two cofounders. We all agreed, with the benefit of hindsight about eigh

I think oftentimes "firing" is the wrong way to look at this. I founded my startup with two cofounders. We all agreed, with the benefit of hindsight about eight months in, that we were the wrong guys to be working on this together and that we should step back and look at the situation. I started that process but they could see it too. We analysed the problem (their skills were more ephemeral than executional… networking/introductions/ideas) and it led to us occasionally overindulging in "taking the idea for a walk". I was frustrated because I felt very strongly that we should be building and dedicating all our time to shipping software and speaking to our users. The conversations were entirely amicable. They had both invested cash and time, and had received equity + founder's round equity as a result. They kept their bought equity and we reduced the founder's round equity by 50% each, and I reallocated it later on to two fantastic directors who have been, for near enough a year, surrogate cofounders. Both of my original cofounders dip in with advice as we need it and have since been really helpful. Nobody was fired and I appreciate that sometimes it's necessary to have a sterner conversation (and indeed sometimes it's probably appealing in the heat of the moment). The thing to remember is that everyone has an emotional attachment to the company, and that makes it a very tricky conversation to have.