<story><title>My startup failed, and this is what it feels like</title><url>https://medium.com/@nikkidurkin99/my-startup-failed-and-this-is-what-it-feels-like-c5d64b3ae96b</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nikkidurkin</author><text>Hey Andrew, I actually glossed over that out of respect for the 2 guys. My purpose was not to bitch about them, and many people who will read this post in my network will know who I&amp;#x27;m talking about. There were mistakes made on both sides, but in the end I bent over backwards to accomodate them and as soon as YC was over and they could say they were YC founders they bailed. I&amp;#x27;m not saying its entirely their fault - I should have picked up on the warning signs but I was off fundraising for 2 months and didn&amp;#x27;t notice. But I did consider them my friends, and they didn&amp;#x27;t care what position I was left in if they were to leave. Anyway, I&amp;#x27;m sure we both learned a lot from the experience.</text></item><item><author>andrewljohnson</author><text>It struck me when she glossed over how&amp;#x2F;why her two co-founders left. There&amp;#x27;s got to be a deeper story to why two &amp;quot;co-founders&amp;quot; would leave right when 1.2M is secured.&lt;p&gt;She said they &lt;i&gt;decided to tell me they were leaving the company without even a hint of warning&lt;/i&gt; - my guess is there was no agreement in the first place or a lot of unnoticed warnings. To conclude she&amp;#x27;s just too trustful is almost certainly a flawed conclusion.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure she learned a lot from this experience, but she seems to write off the deserters as flaky. I&amp;#x27;d be asking myself what I did or what lies I was telling myself that made me think I had co-founders when I really did not. That sort of character judgment is as important as product judgment.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jakejake</author><text>I think it&amp;#x27;s great that you take the high road and don&amp;#x27;t resort to dragging other people through the mud. You definitely seem to place the responsibility all on yourself, which I imagine is not always the full truth. Not providing any reason at all, actually makes it sound as if the two co-founders just randomly and completely bailed on you. (Which may be exactly the truth)&lt;p&gt;I was trying to imagine a logical scenario, for example they had an even better opportunity. Or perhaps it was better to split before the stakes became to high. Maybe the salaries were not going to be what was expected, there were disagreements on responsibilities, etc. I can imagine a lot of scenarios.&lt;p&gt;Not to diminish your article, which I found extremely interesting. It was just a point that definitely seems like there was a greater story to be told.</text></comment>
<story><title>My startup failed, and this is what it feels like</title><url>https://medium.com/@nikkidurkin99/my-startup-failed-and-this-is-what-it-feels-like-c5d64b3ae96b</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nikkidurkin</author><text>Hey Andrew, I actually glossed over that out of respect for the 2 guys. My purpose was not to bitch about them, and many people who will read this post in my network will know who I&amp;#x27;m talking about. There were mistakes made on both sides, but in the end I bent over backwards to accomodate them and as soon as YC was over and they could say they were YC founders they bailed. I&amp;#x27;m not saying its entirely their fault - I should have picked up on the warning signs but I was off fundraising for 2 months and didn&amp;#x27;t notice. But I did consider them my friends, and they didn&amp;#x27;t care what position I was left in if they were to leave. Anyway, I&amp;#x27;m sure we both learned a lot from the experience.</text></item><item><author>andrewljohnson</author><text>It struck me when she glossed over how&amp;#x2F;why her two co-founders left. There&amp;#x27;s got to be a deeper story to why two &amp;quot;co-founders&amp;quot; would leave right when 1.2M is secured.&lt;p&gt;She said they &lt;i&gt;decided to tell me they were leaving the company without even a hint of warning&lt;/i&gt; - my guess is there was no agreement in the first place or a lot of unnoticed warnings. To conclude she&amp;#x27;s just too trustful is almost certainly a flawed conclusion.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure she learned a lot from this experience, but she seems to write off the deserters as flaky. I&amp;#x27;d be asking myself what I did or what lies I was telling myself that made me think I had co-founders when I really did not. That sort of character judgment is as important as product judgment.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ixmatus</author><text>I experienced a co-founder split not too long ago and I can definitely tell you from my personal introspection that you may need to look deeper than &amp;quot;it was my fault for not seeing the warning signs&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;It always takes two to tango and you&amp;#x27;re right to not bitch about them but then saying you were stabbed in the back is silly. Being a founder is tough, having co-founder problems is tougher, &lt;i&gt;clearly understanding&lt;/i&gt; what your part in the dynamic is or was is even more difficult.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, too, to get this level of internal depth takes distance from the people and the experience. It took about six to eight months for me to figure out what was rightfully my fault and what was rightfully my co-founder&amp;#x27;s fault - beyond &amp;quot;seeing the warning signs early&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Also, I don&amp;#x27;t know what your captable looked like but if you were the controlling interest you cannot and should not expect anyone to care about what position you&amp;#x27;re left in - you must be prepared to shoulder the burden on your own for a bit if they decide it isn&amp;#x27;t worth their time anymore. The more you own it the more you &lt;i&gt;own&lt;/i&gt; it.&lt;p&gt;Hope you&amp;#x27;re okay and sorry if this comes off as admonishment, it actually comes from a heartfelt place. You&amp;#x27;re welcome to contact me personally if you want more support.&lt;p&gt;[EDIT]&lt;p&gt;Re-reading my comment, I might be coming off too much as an armchair psychologist, I&amp;#x27;ll leave the comment up for posterity and maybe you&amp;#x27;ll find something useful in it or not. Either way I think you&amp;#x27;ve handled yourself well and hope that you yourself are doing well.</text></comment>