It is a known fact that the majority of startups fail, yet most people assume it is external factors of funding or the market that will cause their downfall. In Noam Wasserman’s study of 10,000 VC-backed startups:
- 65% of those who shut their doors did so because of “people problems,” irreconcilable frictions between the founding team,
- Compared to only 35% failing due to anything else – product, functional, market, or funding problems.
Wow, that’s about twice as many that fail based purely on challenges that can’t be overcome within people dynamics. Relationships are hard, and this is especially true in startups, when you’re investing a lot of time and effort, forgoing other opportunities, and the stakes and therefore tensions can run high. So what makes it so hard to navigate the interpersonal side of startups versus the business and technical side? And how can you get ahead of these challenges?
- 60% of team success is the design – having the right people. I’ll address this in further detail in another post, but it essentially comes down to finding co-founders with a similar vision and values, and with complementary personality and skills.
- 30% is the team launch – how you kick things off. Most disagreements come down to a misalignment in expectations, so setting these clearly up front, knowing what is important (and not important!) to everyone, how you’ll communicate, when people can make decisions without checking in, whether you’ll work together in the same room or separately, etc. etc. etc…
- 10% is the process – ensuring you have the right processes in place to track progress and keep things on track. This includes everything from feedback mechanisms to metrics of the company progress. It may be the smallest percentage, but can still bring a team and company down if it’s lacking.
Ultimately, it takes both a great team, and the ability to set expectations and communicate, and want to make things work.
Laurie Stach 
Makes me think about my decision of no co-founders
While you may be tempted to startup your company alone, keep in mind that there can be a lot of potentially valuable reasons to have co-founders: complementing your skills, getting a more well-rounded perspective, having support through the ups and downs of a startup, and more.
very informative and useful knowledge for me.
really good
It is very good , it is very knowledgeable for me.
Very good
Wow, very important news for me. thk u!
very important news for me. thks a lot!
I have learned a lot from this article , I did not think people problem would matter so much in a startup.
Excellent
That was very informative.
yeah it was
Great article. Good teams don’t happen by accident but made.
Nice. Complimentary co-founders are most essential.
It motivates me to do something new.
Great activity to help in future
Inspite a family entrepreneurship seems may have unpredictable results, because bonds and all that family things, I do believe it can success if all the remarkable issues, stated in this post, are properly care for everybody.
Great idea, wright people and, always, mindset.
really good
Thanks a lot, I have just realized that since I started taking this course and read the article, I feel like changing my habits in order to get a successful startup no matter what happens.
Success is always about team work. Having the right team on board the only best way to run for a start up according to me. I really the idea that says finding people with ‘ similar vision and values, and with complementary personality and skills’ is key to all!
great idea
Alignment of interests amongst the co-founders is critical. Usually it needs complementary personalities, you can’t all be “Alpha personalities”, and each should bring a skill or perspective that adds value to the mix. At the same time you need to remember someone needs to be in the lead but with consensus. Team leadership is crucial although it shouldn’t be at the expense of the expectations and contribution of each team member. Everyone plays a role!