Jessica Livingston on Cofounder Disputes and Making Something People Want

TL;DR

Cofounder relationship quality is critical to startup success; founder breakups often crush startups. The biggest early cause of failure is not making something people want, followed by founder disputes. Startups typically must iterate or radically change their idea based on user feedback, as shown by the evolutions of Airbnb, Order Ahead, and Dropbox.

Key insights

• Founder breakups are more common and damaging than most founders assume; a two-founder breakup leaves a single founder, which is especially hard.
• Red flags in a cofounder (trustworthiness, work ethic, competence) should be addressed immediately, not ignored.
• Making something people want is the hardest challenge; being brilliant and determined is insufficient without talking to users and adjusting the idea.