which design looks better - can't agree with cofounder

Who is your target audience? A/B testing, maybe?

Although its just the background in this case but it does get in the way of text and other UI elements.

Beats me as to whether why people continue doing this stuff, most notably Apple and many Mac-specific apps. Annoys me no end!

That said, whoever wants the paper bg should accept that they aren't a designer and focus on other productive tasks in the company.

More importantly, there are a few other glaring issues in this design that go beyond a simple background image decision.

Similar to having two CEOs being bad for running a company, having two "art directors" can completely ruin your product.