I used to do consulting for a small US biotech company. The company was founded by a French PhD and a US bachelors student when they were good friends, but it only went downhill from there.
Even though they were equal partners, the PhD guy always belittled his cofounder in everything because after all, the other guy only has a BSc, so they must be stupid right (at the same time, PhD guy convinced BSc that getting a PhD is not worth it)?
PhD guy thinks he knows everything (he has a PhD after all!!), but he has the business acumen of an unplugged toaster. For example, his adwords campaigns has people looking for specific products land on the overview page that contains all products (instead of the page for that specific product or *gasp* a landing page).
The power struggle became worse over the years, as PhD's father pumped $500k+ into the company to keep it from failing. Now BSc guy has even less to say, because PhD's daddy paid the bills.
It wouldn't be all that bad, except of course that the companies product is nowhere near as profitable as PhD initially expected and their competition is using a cheaper (and less sophisticated) manufacturing process. In short, their customers don't care about the specific advantages this company's product delivers. These advantages don't matter to what the customers do with the product.
So now BSc guy wants out, but he can't, because he has bills to pay and because of the penny-pinching salary both cofounders agreed to pay themselves he can't save any money. The company also owes him a sizable amount (like 6 figures), but since they're not liquid they can't pay.
These guys were yelling at each other every day. Sometimes there were fist fights (I kid you not).
BSc guy had several nervous breakdowns, which I helped him through over the phone. He wanted out. Badly.
This all happened in or before 2015. I quit working for them back then.
BSc guy is still working there today (according to LinkedIn). Maybe things have changed, but I doubt it.
My conclusions were:
Even though they were equal partners, the PhD guy always belittled his cofounder in everything because after all, the other guy only has a BSc, so they must be stupid right (at the same time, PhD guy convinced BSc that getting a PhD is not worth it)?
PhD guy thinks he knows everything (he has a PhD after all!!), but he has the business acumen of an unplugged toaster. For example, his adwords campaigns has people looking for specific products land on the overview page that contains all products (instead of the page for that specific product or *gasp* a landing page).
The power struggle became worse over the years, as PhD's father pumped $500k+ into the company to keep it from failing. Now BSc guy has even less to say, because PhD's daddy paid the bills.
It wouldn't be all that bad, except of course that the companies product is nowhere near as profitable as PhD initially expected and their competition is using a cheaper (and less sophisticated) manufacturing process. In short, their customers don't care about the specific advantages this company's product delivers. These advantages don't matter to what the customers do with the product.
So now BSc guy wants out, but he can't, because he has bills to pay and because of the penny-pinching salary both cofounders agreed to pay themselves he can't save any money. The company also owes him a sizable amount (like 6 figures), but since they're not liquid they can't pay.
These guys were yelling at each other every day. Sometimes there were fist fights (I kid you not).
BSc guy had several nervous breakdowns, which I helped him through over the phone. He wanted out. Badly.
This all happened in or before 2015. I quit working for them back then.
BSc guy is still working there today (according to LinkedIn). Maybe things have changed, but I doubt it.
My conclusions were:
- Don't go into business with someone that doesn't respect you.
- Don't go into business with someone on equal terms if that person doesn't put in as much effort as you.
- Don't go into business with someone if doing so limits your future options financially or career-wise (if you want to pursue a career as an employee or at least want to have that option open to you).