Should I quit now before I get burned? | Hacker News Reader

Should I quit now before I get burned?

11 pointsrailsdev123414 comments

A little background - a guy who I used to work for (and trust) approached me 6 months ago with an idea for a web application that targets a non-sexy industry. He would be the CEO/sales/bizdev guy and I would be the developer. It seemed like a really solid idea and something reasonable that I could build. After a week or so of researching competitors and hashing out some other details I decided to start building the product.

Fast forward to 6 months later and we now have a product which I'm fairly proud of. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that I was hoping for, but I think it's a pretty solid MVP. The only problem is that my cofounder and I have completely different values, and it's really hard for us to see eye to eye.

- He wants to aggressively pursue patents (even though we haven't made a single doller yet) - I think patents are a huge waste of time and resources and this stage in the business. Plus I don't think our product is super novel to begin with

- He insists that we continue adding more and more features before we release - I think we should just release the damn thing and see if anybody likes it

- I think that he should take a more active role in 'product' related activities, like creating mock-ups and performing QA. He thinks we shouldn't bother testing until the product is done!

- He tends to be very scatter brained with his ideas. This concerns me greatly because he has the domain experience in the industry that we're targeting. I have no experience in this industry and thus have to trust that he has the right vision for this product.

I really don't want to give up but at this point I've lost a lot of faith in the competence of my cofounder and I have a hard time motivating myself to keep working on this product. I feel like our difference in values cannot be reconciled, and I worry that his vision is not focused enough.

Any advice on how to move forward?

I've been in this exact same position once in the past.

Ask yourself this: do you really think successful companies start out this way?

Your co-founder can't execute. It doesn't sound like he knows anything about starting up.

If he were destined to be a successful CEO, he would be pushing you to release an imperfect product, not the other way around. His hair should be on fire, and it's clearly not.

Cut your losses and work on any of the countless other useful things there are for you to build. Ideas are a dime a dozen.

Edit: After reading the other responses that encourage you to try to make it work, I strongly (and respectfully) disagree with them. His personality is wrong for startups, but it's also a mismatch for yours. Be discriminatory with your time and stop giving it to someone who is squandering it.

Thank you for the honest reply. I completely agree that my cofounder and I have mismatched personalities. I just wish I had recognized that fact sooner.

I know how you feel. A failed company is rarely the same as wasted time, though. You learned a lot about what you need in a partnership.

And definitely don't beat yourself up for misjudging someone.

If you trusted no one, you'd have a miserable, unproductive life. If you trusted everyone, you'd waste all your time and money going nowhere.

It's really hard to strike a balance where you trust the right people. No one gets it right 100% of the time.

Yup, this sounds way too familiar. Happened to me. I agree wholeheartedly with sm88. Cut your losses and move on.. And here is why.

1. I have feeling you already know deep inside what you have to do and you're looking for reassurance which is totally understandable. I, myself, didn't realize that until waay after. So, go with your instincts. So, before posting, ask yourself. "Am I unsure about what I should do -or- do I already know what I must do but being hesitant or need reassurance, etc."

2. If you had said "we both believe in MVP but he wants feature A and I want B in MVP..and we are arguing.". I would tell you to work it out, work through it. Those arguments are actually great as long as you both are always willing go get drinks in the evening. Seriously, for me, it came down to that: "end of the day, can I still go grab drinks with my co-founder many nights of the week if I had to?" test. But you said "our difference in values cannot be reconciled and I worry that his vision.." Little too deep in my opinion. Huge red flag.

3. I hate making judgement without knowing the details, but come on, aggressively pursue a patent before MVP?...Maybe there are scenarios that warrant this but I think it is very very rare. So, another huge red flag.

4. Don't underestimate your opportunity cost. As long as you are working with this guy, you are not working with the co-founder you'll love (and hate at times). :)

Neither of you has a clear picture. That is, he doesn't think of MVP in terms of programming and you don't in terms of the business domain. In other words, both of you may be right...and wrong...and talking past each other. That's the benefit and price of diversity.

To me, it comes down to has your cofounder been doing their job. Are there users lined up? If you shipped today, would someone other than the two of you and your families care?

Neither of you is an expert on your company. If your cofounder has users lined up, then they've been doing their job. and the tact with patents is to evaluate the degree of distraction their pursuit creates. And patents, despite the HN strategist, are not a bad tertiary exit option. The problem is they are slow and cost money.

Good luck.

You need to have a "come to jesus" talk with him and get him to commit to a solid launch timeline and plan and for both of you to compromise on the points you brought up or it's not going to work. If you can't work through these kinds of things and come out stronger and more focused you are not going to make it anyway. Hopefully you have a solid operating agreement in place with vesting etc that says what happens when one of you walks.

Those don't sound like differences in values, they sound like differences in experience. Namely, he sounds like 99% of new-founders, you sound like an experienced dev.

Your values seem aligned:

* You both want a strong product

* You both want to actually earn money with it

* You both want to serve your customers well

* You both want to do the hard work now so that you're set for the future

This is great, and I think what you're going through is very natural (par for the course really). You have 2 options really:

* Step back: Let him call the shots for awhile, follow his vision for the product pipeline. Maybe he'll learn from his mistakes. (Or maybe he'll surprise you and come up with a solid plan).

* Step up: Let him know that you're the defacto PM here, and he needs to start deferring to your experience. You write the roadmap, he helps you execute.

Either was is fine, it's only really uncomfortable where you're in that weird middle-space you're in now.

> He would be the CEO/sales/bizdev guy and I would be the developer

You should read this fascinating article:

http://www.codingjohnson.com/hex-lies-and-startups

You should try to agree to a launch date and feature set.

He might be good on the business side but a natural procrastinator when it comes to project management, noone can have all the qualities or all the flaws.

If a feature set and deadline agreement is not possible, then you can always give him a dealine of some sort to reach an agreement: if in two weeks there isn't an agreement then the company isn't viable.

Because this is your company too, you shouldn't just find another job and move on. Give yourself a last chance to make it work, and if that doesn't work then move on but knowing that you gave it that last shot.

This way you wont look back and ask yourself what if.

I wouldn't throw in the towel yet . . .

Try to approach him like this . . .

Let's launch, get paying customers, track how they are using the app . . . both to start generating revenue and validate that the app will provide value before adding more features, getting patents, etc . . . then use that revenue for advertising, patents, new features, etc . . .

Just explain that 6 months is a large chunk of time and you don't want to invest more time until you have paid signups and can see how they are using the app/get feedback from paid users as to what they need/want.

Good luck.

How are you at Interpersonal Reads?-- sounds like he's Big Picture, while you're the Detail Guy.

Realize some of this friction comes from you. Persevere, suggest reading up on Conflict Management and How to Manage Your Boss.

I think it sounds that the issue is he is less willing to compromise or give your ideas a shot. He doesn't trust your input. Sounds like he just wants a dogs body. Wants it all his way?

Maybe bringing in another person involved on the project will shed some light and talk sense to your other co-founder? Even just somebody participating in your conversations may help actually.

How much of the company do you own or can take with you when you leave?

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