- Disagreements between company founders can be a major factor undermining a startup’s chances of success
- Set areas of responsibility can help avoid friction when establishing a company
- Personality type is also an important consideration
Starting up a company is never easy. Entrepreneurs endure long workdays, false starts and missteps, and frequent stress while setting up their business. And all that effort may be for naught; countless startups have collapsed after their owners failed to generate a profit or simply burned out.
Tzahi (Zack) Weisfeld, the GM of Ignite: Intel for Startups and a former GM of Microsoft for Startups, says in a Forbes Technology Council post that friction among company founders is an often overlooked factor that jeopardizes a startup’s chances of success. Many ventures are launched as a joint effort by multiple people, and disagreements can easily crop up between members. Weisfeld argues that this factor, unlike issues such as liquidity, can be controlled with the proper strategy.
Weisfeld says the easiest thing to do is to bring on partners that have set areas of expertise, such as one founder who will serve as CEO to handle business matters and one who will serve as CTO and handle technology matters. This allows each owner to focus on certain facets of the business without conflicting with other founders on their responsibilities.
Weisfeld says founders should also be aware of their personality types and whether they might result in conflict. Their roles in the company’s operation should also fit their personality.
