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Starting The Company - Does Someone Have to Get Hurt?

So I am getting ready to submit my LLC forms because I want to get my kick-starter going. This got me thinking about my partnership and my partnerships in the past.


I have tried to start a company with friends before. It didn’t work. Everyone wanted different things because they were in different life stages. The result? We are not friends anymore and the business never made it off the ground.

Now I am in a similar position. My friend and I have a very real passion for coffee and operations. It is not a perfect partnership, but it is good. We balance each other. He is an idealist and I am a realist (borderline pessimist). We have worked together to come up with some great ideas and concepts.

My friend is applying for a new position within our day job. This position will take over his life. If he gets that job, that will be his profession. There will not be time for the grind work that goes into starting a business. This means I will be doing the grinding (haha, accidental coffee pun). If that is the case, then is it really an equal partnership? Yeah, he has great ideas and some of what I would do came from him. However, I am not starting my own business to just be someone else’s grunt, ya know?

I know the solution is to talk to him. My worry is that I will sound like I’m trying to take it all and will end up losing another friend (of which I have very few now). Yes, I know I am worrying about the worst-case scenario, but that seems to be what my history has taught me. It seems like it hits the fan once people start talking about ownership. Someone always gets hurt.


I’m going to talk to him and pray that it works itself out without someone getting hurt.
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