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Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

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Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

#41

Post by troubled1 »

jacquesm wrote: post #39
troubled1 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guess I should of been more clear. We are a marketing startup. We have contracts with businesses and our product is sold to consumers (average Joe). On the consumer end, everything is perfect. Sales are up and user base is doubling every 2 weeks. Mixed responsibility. (I do customer support, SEO, design, etc and we share marketing ideas) On the business end, we are still stuck with crappy deals: low margins, poor bra…

I'm not quite following you there, you'll have to be a bit more clear. You write "we are a marketing startup", "we have contracts with businesses" and "our product". Don't you mean their product ? Or are you reselling/rebranding ? In other words, is the transaction with the end-user yours or is it make by the businesses that you have the contracts with ? Getting big name brands to sign off on an unproven scheme can b…

We have two other competitors (that I know of) who have a very similar offering (give or take) and all are at about the same stage (but the gap is widening).

The deals they have closed so far, are measurably better. (We even managed to get two biz owner that due to personal connections told us a bit more than fair about their dealings with one competitor).

So I am pretty certain where the weak spot is (and it was admitted to be so).

I am posting now because the competition is growing faster and widening the gap.

PS> Excellent comments and questions so far. I am reading the links and got some food for thought.

Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

#42

Post by jacquesm »

troubled1 wrote: post #41
jacquesm wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not quite following you there, you'll have to be a bit more clear. You write "we are a marketing startup", "we have contracts with businesses" and "our product". Don't you mean their product ? Or are you reselling/rebranding ? In other words, is the transaction with the end-user yours or is it make by the businesses that you have the contracts with ? Getting big name brands to sign off on an unproven scheme can b…

We have two other competitors (that I know of) who have a very similar offering (give or take) and all are at about the same stage (but the gap is widening). The deals they have closed so far, are measurably better. (We even managed to get two biz owner that due to personal connections told us a bit more than fair about their dealings with one competitor). So I am pretty certain where the weak spot is (and it was adm…

But that doesn't really answer any of the questions...

Sales being the 'weak spot' is easy because that's always the weak spot, but that doesn't mean that that is the root cause.

If your co-founder admits to his shortcomings but does make some sales that actually gives me a lot of hope.

Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

#44

Post by haily »

This is probably the HARDEST part of starting a company. Every startup will go through this phase. Traction is a good sign, ask your partner to keep track of which customers bought and why. Refine your message and focus on those customer profiles so that you get the cream first.

As more customers sign on, the sales will be a little easier. It's like starting a fire from scratch.

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

#45

Post by DenisM »

Half a year later: The site is up and running. We have invested some of our money and spent months of work on it. And now came the second part. He needed to go out and start getting customers while I continued ironing out the tech parts.

For future reference, this is where you went wrong. He should have been out there selling screenshots and powerpoints, thus generating leads and design feedback, for the day one.

When something can fail, it should be given opportunity to fail as soon and as cheap as possible.

Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

#46

Post by mattmaroon »

Did you incorporate? If so, how is ownership currently structured?

You might be able to strike a buyout deal for something other than cash immediately. I'd be really careful about doing this though as it might impact your future chances of fundraising.

I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, and since you mentioned your savings are running out you probably cannot afford to talk to someone who is, but my guess is you're stuck with him. Assuming you are, how can you make the best of it?

If he admits that he's not that good at sales, he's already taken the first step to getting better. That's at least a good sign. Perhaps get him to attend some classes or seminars on salesmanship. Have him review the sales calls he has made and try to figure out where they went wrong.

If you can swing it, maybe even just hire a salesman. Assuming you can't get rid of your partner, you'd rather him do nothing than ruin relationships with potential clients.

Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

#47

Post by uptown »

troubled1 wrote: post #20
uptown wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"...but still will keep us with a CEO (him) that I cannot trust professionaly."

If that's truly the case, then you're done as business partners.

Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

#48

Post by hooande »

Investing more time in a bad cofounder is pointless. You need to ask yourself, honestly, whether this guy can do the job you need him to do. If there are any maybes, ifs or doubts...if you aren't sure that he's the kind of person who will find a way no matter what...then there is no point putting any more time into this. You'll just be putting good money after bad.

If you feel real passion for your idea and if you see a lot of potential then you can probably arrange some kind of buyout or work something out with him. If he can see that you're real serious and he isn't, he should step aside (if he's a stand up guy). If he won't, then there's no point trying to turn him into someone that he isn't. Move on.

Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

#49

Post by omd »

I was in the exact same situation years ago after starting a company with a longtime friend. The company was growing like crazy, but then my partner wanted to slow it down to spend more time with his family. Everyone I talked to (an investor, lawyer, friends) agreed he was holding the company back and should leave, but it wouldn't be easy. It would have been difficult and costly because he was a shareholder as well as one of the lead technicians.

Finally, someone explained it to me from a different perspective: If my partner didn't want to leave then I was the one with the problem, not him. Instead of looking at what I was missing by him being there (a fact I couldn't get around), I should look at what I could be doing on my own without him. I talked to my partner about it and we agreed I would leave and keep some of my shares instead of a buy-out which the company couldn't afford at the time.

8 years later he's still running the company the way it was after I left. I sold my shares to a new partner for a price that was many times what I would have received if I was bought out when I left. In the past years I've been able to build a company like I envisioned the first time, sold it and am now in the process of repeating that for a second time.

Looking back I've come much further than I would have if I stayed at the company. My former partner found the perfect balance between his company and his family life, and we've been closer friends for the past years than we had been before working together.

Re: Ask HN: My co-founder sux. What can I do ?

#50

Post by nearestneighbor »

jacquesm wrote: post #27

Identification of the real cause of the problem is your top priority. Rather than some of the suggestions in this thread that would most likely result in an unpleasant ending of your venture I'd suggest that both you and your co-founder seek help from a third party you both trust to give you good advice, and that has relevant experience. Another thing you should do is talk to your customers, and figure out what it is…

Never try to teach a salesman how to sell. This will not end well. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDHRLN66Q2E
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