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How much notice to leave company of 2 people?

We started the company almost 2 years ago. I’m the technical founder, he’s the business guy. The best analogy of our business is a job marketplace. We are doing pretty good for user growth for the “job seeker” user base but we haven’t signed up a single company to pay to post their job in a full year since launch.

My co-founder is supposed to be the salesperson but he has mostly just come up with excuses. I brought up the issue of sales a few times but recently (once I realized it had been A WHOLE YEAR) I said listen, I can’t do this for another year if something doesn’t change and we have a single sale.

He’s put in a real effort now for 2 months which is great, but it’s honestly more frustrating that this didn’t happen a year ago. I just can’t get past the fact it took a year to essentially get started.

We’ve talked about potentially pivoting, or running as a lifestyle business but honestly, I think I just want to cut ties. The biggest problem is we live together and have a very interconnected friend group. I’m thinking of giving him the opp to keep me for 3 months and help with the transition.

  • The #1 reason why startups fail is because of interpersonal conflict between founders. Startups are tough and failures and setbacks are part of the game. When you start blaming your co-founder your odds of success will go to zero. So don’t.

    If you really want to quit, quit. If you’re the type that quits when facing a minor setback you should probably get a regular job instead. No shame in that. Startup life is not for everybody.

    If you’re not ready to quit then get your act together.

    What you’re dealing with here is the sunk cost fallacy. Time is lost and mistakes were made. You can’t change the past, so why even bring it up? If your startup becomes a huge success a few years down the road will you really care about any of this? And if your startup fails, all founders are responsible for the failure. You can blame the other guy to make yourself feel better, but what’s the point? When you’re a founder the buck stops with you. Always.

    Get serious about turning your startup around. You should both make sales your #1 priority. Figure out together why sales leads go cold. Address the customer’s concerns and close the deal! Don’t passively wait for your co-founder to bail you out.

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    • It’s not a “minor setback” when you are talking two years into a startup with zero sales. The REAL issue is they didn’t test to see if the marketplace wanted this. If this is all bootstrapped and such, the partner can buy him out without drama. That’s if there was an agreement and who really thought of the idea. Maybe the partner doesn’t want to continue either. It could be you both need to stick a pin in it and do something else for awhile and come back to it later with fresh eyes.

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