Ask HN: Has anyone quit their startup (VC-backed) over cofounder disagreements?

I used to work in VC and have seen a few examples of this. Every case is a little different, but from what you've described I'd focus on salvaging the co-founder relationship. Conflict like this is totally normal. IMO, a pivot is when you change directions based on new information. It sounds like you're not pivoting, but lost. If you haven't already, addressing this head-on and having a candid conversation about being lost would be beneficial. Think of it as an exercise to possibly strengthen your relationship via conflict. Few other thoughts:

1. At this early stage of the business, the core asset is really the co-founding team and their relationship. Conflict is very much normal, but how you resolve it is important. You should be able to articulate your co-founder's concerns. For ex. she might feel the pressure to show "progress" to your investors.

2. It takes a lot of time and energy to build a good working relationship. Moving onto something else might seem like a good idea at the moment, but you could be right back with the same issue with another co-founder.

3. If you do decide to move on, end the relationship as amicably as you can. Note that this is not necessarily the "quickest" route, but it'll help keep your reputation intact.

Edit: spelling.

The one I was a part of wasn't VC-backed, but yes, I've quit due to bad cofounder fit. No equity, no payout, just straight up left for my own sanity. It was my idea, too, and I was the only technical cofounder. It's a nightmare to be stuck in that situation, and it's not worth it imo. I've known other founders who have done the same, including founders of VC-backed companies.

How you navigate this is you quit. You don't have a startup; you have an unstable pair of cofounders flailing to pick a startup to build. Every dollar you draw from your initial investment before securing product/market fit devalues your work. You and your partner have lost respect for each other and will likely sabotage any success you do find.

It's not clear to me what you're preserving by staying.

First off, that sounds incredibly frustrating. I’ve seen this archetype before—a business person with just enough technical knowledge to chime in on complex product decisions, but without the patience or interest to develop any real depth. Instead of building real understanding, they rely on mimicking what looks successful. Always chasing whatever has funding or buzz.

That kind of thinking lacks vision and makes it really hard to build anything meaningful. Over time, it wears you down. Even if the product “works,” it doesn’t feel good because you know you're forcing it. These folks tend to say things like “this should be easy,” then only show up to question why something isn’t done. They manufacture urgency instead of clarity, and when things inevitably fall short, the blame falls on the technical team.

Second, you’re not a first-time founder anymore. Life’s short. For me at least, you’ve earned the right to walk away and build something you actually care about again.

Cofounder splits are extremely common. Cofounder "couples" counselors are a thing you could look into to help resolve your differences. Your VC might have recommendations for one. If you ultimately decide to split, I'd recommend at least one of you (or "the company"?) getting a lawyer to draw up a formal separation agreement you both sign in order to split in the cleanest possible way.

Pivoting every few months? 0 cofounder alignment?

Decisions like these are tough to make in the moment, but looking back you almost never regret it. Trust your gut.

I have been a similar situation before. Yes, walk away — and learn what you can.

There's one easy part of your situation, which is that your immediate next step is clear. I think it's clear because it sounds like the two of you have a fundamental disagreement about how to choose a direction. There's also a power imbalance if you've consistently been going along with pivots that you don't want to execute on. If you think you can resolve things, then maybe I'm wrong. I'm basing my advice on the fact that this is 24 months in — enough time for you to know how easy it'd be to get back to "we like working together and are on a path to success."

Now for the hard parts: * You want to act as professionally as possible in walking away. Communicate clearly, being fair to both yourself and the other people involved. I think it's easy to err to far on either side (either too defensive/passive "nice to yourself" or too deferential "nice to others"). * It can be tempting to think of this is as your cofounder's fault, but that's not constructive, and it's better to learn toward your future actions. For example, how could you have seen this problem earlier? My guess is that you were never "cofounder compatible," and this is a chance to get better at identifying that compatibility with others (useful for both startups and other jobs).

It's not a fun situation, and I hope things go well for you.

> since then we pivoted away from it. we've roughly pivoted almost every month to something new. there is no longer any vision or clear problem we're trying to solve. each month is our team simply fishing for ideas in different industries and domains hoping to strike gold.

I've parted ways with cofounders in two of my five startups (they left, not me... I could afford a zero paycheck for a little while, they couldn't). In both cases we did better after the split. In both cases our original business idea didn't work out, and we were trying to stay alive. It felt like pivoting from idea to idea. Reality was it was just trying to sell and collect enough to make payroll in six weeks. So we went from whatever we were doing to custom dev shop... Survival mode sucks.

When got down to a single founder, it wasn't that one person was right or wrong about what the business could do. It was that the business could execute well enough (without cofounders fighting and second guessing) so it could survive, and eventually find something to productize.

Pivoting every month! After 24 month and after raising VC money. That does not sound good. There are very few things that can be uncovered/learned in one month that would justify pivoting away from it, even in B2C. Even while throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, one needs to actually wait for the thing to actually hit the wall, at the very least...

Pivoting every month fishing for ideas in different industries? What in tarnation? Yea dude get outta there.

As fzwang mentions, your co-founder relationship IS the business at this point. I'd talk to your co-founder 1:1 and really have some uncomfortable conversations. If you both feel like the relationship is not salvageable, amicably walk away without burning the professional bridge (someone might ask her how you are to work with). If your heart is not 100% in it (for whatever reason) I'd suggest walking away. The opportunity cost of dragging the dead weight of a business that you're not bought into (and that you aren't seeing success with) is simply too high - and can have real life consequences (finances, stresses, etc). There's nothing wrong with walking away - there's a reason the overwhelming majority of startups fail. And most tiny startups fail due to co-founder relationships - doesn't have anything to do with PMF or anything. Think about it over a weekend - have the tough conversation(s) - don't burn the bridge. Live to fight another day. The sun is still shining outside and the NBA is still rigged to always make sure the Lakers are relevant ;)

Move on, you’re not married. If You can’t align on how to vet the problem then you can’t align on the dozen other things you need alignment on. Cut your losses and move. It’s not failure it’s pivoting. Take the learning and move on, and make sure you vet your next cofounder throughly along what you learned from this experience. I will say, she wants to work on something that she has data she can sell. Selling, users, and traction will make the fundraise much easier. So try and see where she is coming from. But it sounds like at this point better to go your own way.