Selling is hard. Without knowing the product, the sales he has generated it would be hard for us to tell you whether or not you should be worried. You should talk to him bring up your concerns. He will probably bring up a few of his own. The solution may be as simple as you don't have a sales team or the current sales team is insufficient.
Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
11–20 of 72 posts
Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
#12You have to ask the hard questions. Why are you getting 10x worse deals? What is wrong with your product or value proposition that is requiring you to give such deep discounts?
It is never just one thing. It could be you are selling at the wrong time of the year, wrong customers or perhaps wrong pitch?
If he truly does suck at selling you need to have that conversation and find someone else to sell. Find out what your co-founder can excel in and move him/her there.
Find out the real, real, real problem and see if it is something you all want to fix together.
Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
#13[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
#14A co-founder is no different from a marriage. Communication is everything. Hell, go see a marriage counselor if you have to.
Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
#15Cut bait now. This problem will only get worse for you.
No. This is a bad move unless you know these for a fact:
* Your expectations aren't too high * The problem is with the salesman, not the product. * There are other people who can sell this better * You can afford to hire someone else to do this, or you are willing to give up a % of YOUR remaining stake to take a chance on someone else.
I would just level with your friend and tell them you'd like to give someone else a shot at sales. Let your friend spend his time researching new market directions for the company and making contacts.
Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
#16First off you should be talking to him and not to us, have you voiced your concerns? What was his response? Come up with a plan on how he can do better and what you expect from him. If he doesn't execute on that plan then it's time to talk about buying out his share or getting someone else to buy it out. Do you have a partner agreement? What are your options?
We have spoken on the sales issue repeatedly. He is currently suggesting that I too join sales and let the tech on a slow burner. Sadly I am not a start salesman, and even if I was. I don't want to be pulling the wagon all alone.
Buying wise, we both are at the end of our savings, no one can afford to buy the other. And there currently doesn't seem to be any funds raising in sight.
Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
#17I was in a similar situation, and my advice is: run. fast. now.
If someone sucks at sales, they're going to suck at sales. Of course, one could learn sales etc - but the ONLY value that he brings is sales, and he's supposed to be good at it already.
And then he says you should do sales too? Fuck that. Find someone else, FAST.
Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
#18First off you should be talking to him and not to us, have you voiced your concerns? What was his response? Come up with a plan on how he can do better and what you expect from him. If he doesn't execute on that plan then it's time to talk about buying out his share or getting someone else to buy it out. Do you have a partner agreement? What are your options?
We have spoken on the sales issue repeatedly. He is currently suggesting that I too join sales and let the tech on a slow burner. Sadly I am not a start salesman, and even if I was. I don't want to be pulling the wagon all alone. Buying wise, we both are at the end of our savings, no one can afford to buy the other. And there currently doesn't seem to be any funds raising in sight.
Can you bring in a salesperson that works exclusively on commission? What kind of price range does your product fit into?
Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
#19Useful links:
http://danieltenner.com/posts/0005-starting-up-with-a-friend...
Some thoughts:
Generally, if sales is hard, it's also because of the product development. Don't blame all of it on him, your product is not as amazing as you might think.
Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have spoken on the sales issue repeatedly. He is currently suggesting that I too join sales and let the tech on a slow burner. Sadly I am not a start salesman, and even if I was. I don't want to be pulling the wagon all alone. Buying wise, we both are at the end of our savings, no one can afford to buy the other. And there currently doesn't seem to be any funds raising in sight.
Can you bring in a salesperson that works exclusively on commission? What kind of price range does your product fit into?
We are working on that now. It might give us more breathing air but still will keep us with a CEO (him) that I cannot trust professionaly.