How To Navigate Co-Founder Relationships with Lee Jacobs

On this episode of Venture Stories, Erik is joined by Lee Jacobs (@leejacobs), partner at Edelweiss Capital. He recently wrote a great post about breaking up with his co-founder at a previous company. Lee and Erik discuss the post, some of the thorny issues around co-founder relationships, and investing strategy more broadly.

Lee tells the story of the startup he co-founded and how he came to realize that he and the company needed to part ways. He talks about what he did well in the situation, including getting third-party coaching, and what he would do differently next time. Lee’s former co-founder was one of his groomsmen at Lee’s wedding, so in his case things worked out for the best in the long-run.

He talks about how to avoid blowing up your startup via a "co-founder breakup" and why open and honest communication is so important. They talk about having a “startup prenup” between the co-founders, how to pick a co-founder, and why these relationships are analogous to other types of non-work relationships.

They also talk about investing more broadly, including how Lee and Erik have gotten into investing globally, how to choose founders to back, why as Lee says “it’s okay to be a generalist,” and why he is sector-agnostic when it comes to companies he backs.

Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.

Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Release date

Lydbog: 26. december 2018