Re:Ask HN: How to deal with a dysfunctional relationship wit...
by bwb on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @04:00PM
(#17024345)
Feel free to hit me up if you want to talk, my email is in my profile and happy to jump on voice. I am happy to go into more detail on what I tried with my co-founder what worked. Over the last couple of years, I've talked to a lot of founders so I've got a good collection of what others tried too (slowly writing content for https://healthybusinesspartnerships.com/).
I went through something similar with my 50/50 business partner in 2014. Not quite the same, but close. My co-founder had a bit more of a mid-life crisis that he took out on me, although with your partner it might be similar under the surface. I tried meditation with someone who helps on this store of thing, time, some alternative work arrangement proposals, a coach to work with him, and so on. I was prepared to talk to our only investor and fire him at the time, but it would have created a lot of problems due to our structure. So I tried to buy him out... but in the end that didn't work out and I decided the best course of action for my stress was to sell. It sucked but happy to be out of it.
What would I recommend?
*With the caveat, I don't know more of the details.
1. You guys have hit a million run rate, that is impressive and a huge point to reach. Don't throw away the company so quick until you figure out if you can salvage this, or if you want to salvage this. I would stress that not many companies get to $1 million. I don't know how that first batch of customers is doing, or if you can be profitable without an investment round so there are two big questions I would ask myself.
2. Do you still like this business? Do you want to keep doing it even if you only own 50%?
If you want to continue on this project...
3. I'd recommend going to couples counseling. I kid you not. Tell him that you want to go to a weekly couples counselor and find someone who focuses on business partnerships, this could be a mentor, this could be a therapist. Find someone and have a place you guys can start talking to see if this is going to move forward. If you can't talk this isn't going anywhere.
If after that you still can't talk...
- Can you work with the investors and fire him from day to day and take over? I wasn't sure if there were any investors...
- Can you find an investor who will buy out a portion of his ownership or all of it?
PS. I'd love to hear more on the business and possibly buying him out as well. Always interested in that.
I went through something similar with my 50/50 business partner in 2014. Not quite the same, but close. My co-founder had a bit more of a mid-life crisis that he took out on me, although with your partner it might be similar under the surface. I tried meditation with someone who helps on this store of thing, time, some alternative work arrangement proposals, a coach to work with him, and so on. I was prepared to talk to our only investor and fire him at the time, but it would have created a lot of problems due to our structure. So I tried to buy him out... but in the end that didn't work out and I decided the best course of action for my stress was to sell. It sucked but happy to be out of it.
What would I recommend? *With the caveat, I don't know more of the details.
1. You guys have hit a million run rate, that is impressive and a huge point to reach. Don't throw away the company so quick until you figure out if you can salvage this, or if you want to salvage this. I would stress that not many companies get to $1 million. I don't know how that first batch of customers is doing, or if you can be profitable without an investment round so there are two big questions I would ask myself.
2. Do you still like this business? Do you want to keep doing it even if you only own 50%?
If you want to continue on this project...
3. I'd recommend going to couples counseling. I kid you not. Tell him that you want to go to a weekly couples counselor and find someone who focuses on business partnerships, this could be a mentor, this could be a therapist. Find someone and have a place you guys can start talking to see if this is going to move forward. If you can't talk this isn't going anywhere.
If after that you still can't talk... - Can you work with the investors and fire him from day to day and take over? I wasn't sure if there were any investors... - Can you find an investor who will buy out a portion of his ownership or all of it?
PS. I'd love to hear more on the business and possibly buying him out as well. Always interested in that.