A founder recalls a 2016 startup collapse caused by three cofounders avoiding hard conversations about roles, equity, and rewards. The conflict spiraled into lawsuits and public feuds. He reconciled with Shervin but remains estranged from Brogan, and now stresses having difficult conversations early.
Chapters
So when I look back at those times, they were exciting, they were amazing, they were scary, they were all of the above. But when I look back and I say, man, I wish we were better communicators with each other. The three of us were not good at communicating with each other, especially about tough topics like roles, responsibilities, rewards, equity structure breakdowns. And if you call to mind If you're thinking about starting a company with somebody, like, what is the most awkward conversation that you possibly can have? It's probably the only one that you should have. And we just weren't doing that. We were avoiding that elephant in the room, the proverbial elephant. Um, since then, you know, it would be covered up, hide it. Since then it's been get on it, ride it, because the only way out is through. And the unwillingness to have these conversations was a real big problem. What? Came pretty quickly after. We also were not spending enough time on product market evaluation and ensuring that our product was the right fit. We were kind of just going after technology and not ensuring that it was going to fit the market we were trying to, to serve. And then ultimately after about a year and a half in 2016, what I call the summer of love, about a year and a half of that kind of tension, it blew up publicly, acrimoniously, lawsuits, salacious media, you name it, we had it all. It's like everything from, you know, every worst part of a Silicon Valley episode was in this particular company. And when you look back in hindsight, it seemed really obvious that this was going to happen. It was super painful. It was uber stressful during this time, fractured relationships all around. But since then, Shervin and I have worked really hard. We've come back together stronger than ever. But Brogan and I, the relationship was severed. Probably will never work together or most likely kind of never speak ever again, which is the downsides of these things and discussions not had. So have those tough conversations early and often. Be prepared to move on. If things aren't working out for, for you or for whomever it might be.
