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It is a great point that partnering with a friend is generally dangerous. From my point of view partnering with a friend automatically give you two problems; yo

It is a great point that partnering with a friend is generally dangerous. From my point of view partnering with a friend automatically give you two problems; you have to maintain a friendship while developing a demanding business relationship. The cost of loosing the friendship will make it harder to make demands and walk away if necessary, even if that is objectively the better path. I would also caution against partnering with people that think their major contribution is the ideas, connections and/or management. If you are a founder, you execute and drive the company through execution. For a tech startup that means you either drive customer traction or make the software.

j45 13y ago
Good points. I've had partnerships fail with friends. And have one succeeding right now. What it taught me is that not all friendships can handle pressure and you are only friends to a certain depth, intensity, and commitment to each other. It's a stoic truth that I think can be explained by those friendships that we maintain over the years with little to no effort... with whom spending 24 hours is more than spending months with the wrong people. There is an absolutely necessity to being able to turn the friendship on/off as well as work. I didn't start working with a very close friend until we were in our early 30's, and I'm glad we waited. As mature as we already were, having 10 years away from each other working on projects has increased the appreciation on both sides of the tables.