Here's my opinion:
Life can get very difficult when co-founders do not align with each other and it takes away a lot of mental peace and freedom. Though breaking a corporate partnership is not as hard as breaking a marriage, it's still a huge headache and takes away years of productivity and progress from your journey.
In the past 7 years of running different companies, I've had 3 different cofounders. Each lasted 2-3 years and it was becoming too difficult to align on values, decision-making, and long-term vision.
I felt it was not worth it because the purpose of the business, especially a Micro Startup, is to give us freedom and flexibility. We don't want to go through a lot of challenges for an end goal. We want to enjoy the journey.
For these reasons, Micro Startup, the company that I incorporated in 2024, has only one founder, yours truly. I have the majority stake (99%) and I control all the decisions in the company. I will be retaining the freedom and flexibility that I have right now well into the future.
I will be setting aside some equity for employees as the company grows. I might sell some equity to investors. I might go public. But I will always have the majority stake and voting power for the decisions in the company. My needs will be unique. At some point, I might want to slow down the growth of the company and take a 3-month vacation.
If I have a co-founder who is a workaholic, then I will have a problem there. He might not agree with the idea of me taking a long break while he continues to put too much effort into the growth. I might feel guilt-tripped into working harder than I have to. And this can happen the other way as well.
What if the cofounder gets married, has kids and his life priorities change? If his focus on the work goes down and I am continuing with my focus, then I would feel like his equity is dead weight.
There are just too many moving parts in a company and it's just difficult to manage a cofounder relationship.
Considering that I am not hell-bent on building the next Google or Apple, I am ok giving up the idea of having an equal partner. It's just not worth it for me.
What about you?
This post was originally shared by Deepak Kanakaraju on Linkedin.