I remember reading about Sara Blakely in a Grad School Case Study. She brought on her experienced CEO when she hit $3million-$4 million yearly revenue. I thought wow that is pretty early.
I agree with Ryan, this was very aptly timed.
We (me and co-founder) were pushing hard for a year, getting things up and running and then last August we decided we needed a holiday. My co-founder never came back to work after the holiday. The moment she stopped she crashed so hard and was swallowed by anxiety that she feels physically unable to work now. I'm left on my own trying to keep things ticking over and figure out if I can continue...
I think it's really hard to know what to expect in your first startup. Because of that, I didn't prepare my wife well for it, and we had to work through it on the fly. We learned a lot together, and ultimately discovered where each of our limits were.
At the end of the day, I chose to honor her limits and step away from running the startup in a full time capacity. The result has been a greater trust on her part and (I believe) a greater...
50-50 even-Steven when splitting equity is best, right? Not so much. Turns out cutting things right down the middle is rarely fair to start and only gets further out of balance as time goes on.
Evaluating the real contribution of every partner is also subjective. Partner A may do all the work but Partner B, for example, has such good contacts in the industry that, alone, Partner B can catapult the company from 0 to 6-0 in no time at all. Years ago I had a lazy partner that had the gift of being able to get through the front door of a potential client, without a referral, without an appointment, knowing nobody inside and getting out...
Hey everyone this is Wil Schroter, the Co-Host of Startup Therapy and the Founder + CEO of Startups.com Just wanted to say thank you for listening and writing in over the past year.
We're launching these new forums to allow every one in the community to begin sharing their experiences and where possibly, helping each other out.
We'll all be watching these threads closely, so if you have something to say, please know you've got our ear!