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Ignoring Ignorance

Many cofounders disagree on if they’re ignoring an issue or if they’re ignorant of it. Let that sink in.

Ignoring = lack of acknowledgement; ignorance = lack of awareness. At any given point, you’re only one conversation away from reaching a clearer source of truth.

The peaks of stock market bubbles, obvious in hindsight, are deceptively difficult to time. There’s no single metric that signals when the clock is about to strike 12:00.

→ Cofounderships on similar trajectories are plagued by the same uncertainty.

As a cofounder, it’s your job to address your blindspots before the bubble bursts.

Three common issues that mask deeper problems when things are “going well.”

1. Success masks cracks.

   When the business is doing good, you assume your cofoundership is solid. In the same week as Twitter’s IPO, the book Hatching Twitter was published and exposed the juvenile backstabbing between the 4 cofounders.
   
   Despite the financial success, their friendships dissolved in a pool of jealousy, passive-aggressiveness, cursing matches, and secret coups to oust one another.

2. Little things add up.

   Small annoyances accumulate tension. In the moment, you have more urgent and important matters to handle, but over time, this makes you avoidant and defensive.
   
   Garry Tan talked about his experience starting Posterous in detail in this YouTube video. At first, he didn’t admit it to “keep up the fiction that they were good cofounders for one another.”

3. Never had a fight.

   Cofounders who begin with somewhat equal decision-making power are at risk of a major conflict because you’re used to consensus. It’s a red flag when you claim to be equal but own different areas like business and tech.
   
   Overlaps between the areas is what leads to disputes. While Airbnb and Google cofounders had similar equity, they used a weighted voting structure.

When companies become overhyped, you ignore certain truths that contradict the hype. The more you do that, the more you neglect research, and the more ignorant you become.

A booming business doesn’t guarantee a solid cofoundership. But a booming cofoundership leads to a solid business.

That’s all for now,

BTW — The Cherrytree cofounder community is now open. Join here →

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