Co-founder Disputes

A conflict within the founding team is a situation that unfortunately arises more often than not, but when conflict does occur amongst two or more founders, how should one tackle it?

Tune in to hear how Avnish Bajaj thinks about it.

Salonie:

So Avnish, I’m a founder and I have some misgivings about my cofounder.

Avnish:

Too late.

Salonie:

No but really, what should I do because this is a very common –

Avnish:

But sadly, it might be too late, it might be too late. And I’ve seen way too many stories playout and generally 80-90% have been situations where its still not worked and our advice always has been please try to make it work but the sad reality is – that’s why I said it might already be too late.

But even for the 20% chance that it may work, it’s worth giving it a shot. And I think the framework in my head is, is it attitude or its aptitude? Are you not getting along, and you have questions because of which of these, if it’s both, I don’t think it’s working. If it is attitude but you think the persons aptitude is great, which we have seen in some situations, that could be fixed. But that then depends on is the person a growth mindset person or a fixed mindset person, are you able to get through to them? say that I’m feeling lonely in doing this alone, why aren’t you stepping up.

So, it’s still worth taking the 20% shot. I would say do it very, very quickly, don’t wait, the minute you have that question in mind you need to address it, I’m not saying the relationship is over, but you need to figure out all of this stuff very, very quickly, it can disable an organization if it’s not handled quickly and correctly. Worst case if it doesn’t work, my other two cents is be generous and be graceful. These things people are giving their life to it and karmically I believe it all goes around in circles. So, I would be very generous but, in that situation, be generous, graceful and decisive.