My co-founders suck and I don't know what to do

[steel-potato]

So I recently started my first business in the cosmetics industry. I come from a web-design, product design and graphic design background. So when I told my 2 brothers about my idea, they immediately wanted to be a part of it and were very enthusiastic to begin with. One of them always helps me make the physical product, and he also got one of his friends on board with the project. His friend, however, has done nothing so far other than joining a couple of meetings.

As for me, I have A LOT of work that I am doing. With my professional background in design, I am the one doing the branding, website, and graphic design. I also helped formulate and research the recipe. One of my brothers is helpful, but super busy as he is a doctor. I figured his medical expertise would come in handy, especially as a proof that our product is safe to use. However, his actual contributions have been limited, and it is extremely annoying trying to get him to do anything as he is out of the house doing stuff (including his dance practice) for 14 hours of the day. However, he is extremely keen to be an equal shareholder to me as he helped me get started right in the beginning.

My other brother has helped with some legal stuff, but has taken a very laid back approach to everything, which is fine by me as he is in another city, and he doesn't seem so egotistical about being a majority shareholder.

Finally, there is my brothers friend, who I agreed to take on board after a lot of negotiation. This friend is a stock broker for a big bank, and is also superrrr busy. However, he has some interesting insights, good connections, and may be useful further down the track...

For the last 4 months I've been telling myself that once all the creative stuff like the website is out of the way, that the work will be more in the hands of the other founders. However, I am consistently the only one posting in our Slack channel, organising meetings, creating timelines and deliverables... it feels like I am the only one who is really invested in this. That is not to say that I can do everything on my own, and I have benefitted by having other people there to help me with it. But I am feeling increasingly frustrated at their lack of initiative. It would just make me feel better if they were texting in the Slack, or suggesting ideas that they've had, or even doing a social media marketing course on Udemy. But it is always me who has to do everything.

To make matters worse, since the co-founders are family and a family friend I can't really burn any bridges without causing massive relationship damage. My brother's ego is very involved in all this, and I don't think he is used to not being the star of the show (this is the doctor). He insists on an equal amount of equity as I, and consistently threatens that I am bringing bad blood into the business, that we are not at a stage yet where we need to discuss equity, and that I am being greedy asking for a majority share-hold.

Please.... send help!!! I don't know what to do. How do I manage 4 very intelligent, type-A, and ego driven individuals???

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Do you have any type of written agreement? Even something just preliminary?

If not, your egoic brother is going to become a problem, especially if things go ballistic.

 

[steel-potato]

Do you have any type of written agreement? Even something just preliminary?

If not, your egoic brother is going to become a problem, especially if things go ballistic.

My gosh... I did not think I'd get a reply from the man himself!!

Nothing at all so far. Every time I've brought it up and suggested talking about equity and stuff things get heated very quickly. Fair enough, every one wants to take as much as they can get, so it won't be easy. NTB, we haven't launched yet and are still in the early stages, which is where the others keep insisting that we won't know how much everyone is contributing until we have actually launched (you can guess how I feel about that, given that it is 70% me who is getting it to that point).

I've thought about finding a non-biased third party to try and help us figure it all out.

P.S. Your book is one of two books that has fundamentally changed my life in some way. I'm a massive fan

 

[ChrisGav]

So I recently started my first business in the cosmetics industry. I come from a web-design, product design and graphic design background. So when I told my 2 brothers about my idea, they immediately wanted to be a part of it and were very enthusiastic to begin with. One of them always helps me make the physical product, and he also got one of his friends on board with the project. His friend, however, has done nothing so far other than joining a couple of meetings.

As for me, I have A LOT of work that I am doing. With my professional background in design, I am the one doing the branding, website, and graphic design. I also helped formulate and research the recipe. One of my brothers is helpful, but super busy as he is a doctor. I figured his medical expertise would come in handy, especially as a proof that our product is safe to use. However, his actual contributions have been limited, and it is extremely annoying trying to get him to do anything as he is out of the house doing stuff (including his dance practice) for 14 hours of the day. However, he is extremely keen to be an equal shareholder to me as he helped me get started right in the beginning.

My other brother has helped with some legal stuff, but has taken a very laid back approach to everything, which is fine by me as he is in another city, and he doesn't seem so egotistical about being a majority shareholder.

Finally, there is my brothers friend, who I agreed to take on board after a lot of negotiation. This friend is a stock broker for a big bank, and is also superrrr busy. However, he has some interesting insights, good connections, and may be useful further down the track...

For the last 4 months I've been telling myself that once all the creative stuff like the website is out of the way, that the work will be more in the hands of the other founders. However, I am consistently the only one posting in our Slack channel, organising meetings, creating timelines and deliverables... it feels like I am the only one who is really invested in this. That is not to say that I can do everything on my own, and I have benefitted by having other people there to help me with it. But I am feeling increasingly frustrated at their lack of initiative. It would just make me feel better if they were texting in the Slack, or suggesting ideas that they've had, or even doing a social media marketing course on Udemy. But it is always me who has to do everything.

To make matters worse, since the co-founders are family and a family friend I can't really burn any bridges without causing massive relationship damage. My brother's ego is very involved in all this, and I don't think he is used to not being the star of the show (this is the doctor). He insists on an equal amount of equity as I, and consistently threatens that I am bringing bad blood into the business, that we are not at a stage yet where we need to discuss equity, and that I am being greedy asking for a majority share-hold.

Please.... send help!!! I don't know what to do. How do I manage 4 very intelligent, type-A, and ego driven individuals???

Have you guys discussed roles and who will be doing what in this business or was just like I have a cool business idea we should all work together?

 

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[steel-potato]

Have you guys discussed roles and who will be doing what in this business or was just like I have a cool business idea we should all work together?

I was the latter. I was like "I'm working on this business" and then my brother being like "oh can I help". And the product evolved quite a lot since then. So it's not like I had this crazy golden ticket idea that came 100% from me

 

[amp0193]

If you still want to be on speaking terms with your brothers in 5 years... figure this shit out right now and get it in writing. Who gets what equity, and who's responsibilities are who's.

And go with your gut on who think is actually going to deliver on that and don't do a deal with them that doesn't make sense if you think they won't.


One of my friends told me the story today of the business he and his brother ran together for 5 years (with no equity agreement in place). He had been handling production and distribution in one part of the state and his brother did another. Whenever they would try to figure out who would own what as they expanded into new markets, things would get heated quickly, just like in your situation. It culminated in his brother stealing all of his region's accounts out from under him with no warning (essentially kicking him out of the business), and they haven't spoken in a year.

That's where you're headed.

 

[steel-potato]

If you still want to be on speaking terms with your brothers in 5 years... figure this shit out right now and get it in writing. Who gets what equity, and who's responsibilities are who's.

And go with your gut on who think is actually going to deliver on that and don't do a deal with them that doesn't make sense if you think they won't.


One of my friends told me the story today of the business he and his brother ran together for 5 years (with no equity agreement in place). He had been handling production and distribution in one part of the state and his brother did another. Whenever they would try to figure out who would own what as they expanded into new markets, things would get heated quickly, just like in your situation. It culminated in his brother stealing all of his region's accounts out from under him with no warning (essentially kicking him out of the business), and they haven't spoken in a year.

That's where you're headed.

Wow... you're right though. I will have to make an agreement after Christmas. Thanks for the advise

 

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[Jeix]

I mean it doesn't sound like anybody but you here is enthusiastic enough about this business where you can expect them to actually follow up on whatever they write down, especially given how everybody already has their own careers up and running and not interested in leaving them for this.

Personally, I have 3 partners.
One of them is 100% involved and it's great, everything that needs to be done I can count on him for and we each contribute to the best of our abilities, he's my number one guy and we would have crashed and burned 100 times without him.
The second one only works one day a week and takes care of stuff like cleaning and taking out the trash. Not much but at least he put down a lot of money when we started, so we couldn't have done it without him. He has another job he can't afford to quit right now.
The third one is a really good friend, a very honest person I'll give him that, however he already has another job and only shows up twice a week. He always comes up with crazy ideas he'll never follow up on and leave all the work to you and he barely put in any money when we started. He's also told me he won't quit his current job to work at the store until I've broken €200k/year, which is a huge ask because at it currently stands I need to grow 2.5x to reach that.
His redeeming quality is that he ran another store in the past, he's exceptional in knowledge of our market, has connections with suppliers and is very good with customers, all things I can work with or get some use out of, despite the fact that everything I learn will then be up to me to do but you take what you can get.

Your (luckily not yet) partners sound like a bad mix of my numbers two and three. No money, no commitment and already busy with other full time jobs they are unwilling to let go until you've already proven your concept (meaning after all the hard work has been done).
I'd say never sign anything with them. I suggest you start on your own first as a side hustle until your concept is proven, then get everything in writing. You don't get equal shares as me if you work 5 hours and I work 40.

Take their silence on slack as a serious warning. They don't care and you shouldn't spend your day trying to get them to care. You should spend it working on YOUR business. Once results are in, they'll care. And by then, they'll have to put their money down if they want a piece of it.

You are looking for that bit of madness in your partners, the same one you have when you juggle 7 different jobs just to get things off the ground (website, graphics, concept, marketing etc.).
The kind of madness that my number one guy had when I told him dude we are starting a store and you'll have to work in it full time for free for at least a year, save from some cash here and there we'll manage to scrounge for you, are you in? And he said "Let's do it".
Without this madness, people will just choose the cushy job they already have while you break your back, only coming to you once things go well to claim their share of YOUR work.

Obviously all this is just my opinion as an outsider, take it as you will as I'm not in your shoes.

 

[msufan]

I personally would stop doing everything and see if others choose to pick up the... ahem... slack.

If they do, great.

If not, then maybe it becomes clear to everyone that you are carrying the bulk of the workload and you can negotiate from there.

 

[steel-potato]

I mean it doesn't sound like anybody but you here is enthusiastic enough about this business where you can expect them to actually follow up on whatever they write down, especially given how everybody already has their own careers up and running and not interested in leaving them for this.

Personally, I have 3 partners.
One of them is 100% involved and it's great, everything that needs to be done I can count on him for and we each contribute to the best of our abilities, he's my number one guy and we would have crashed and burned 100 times without him.
The second one only works one day a week and takes care of stuff like cleaning and taking out the trash. Not much but at least he put down a lot of money when we started, so we couldn't have done it without him. He has another job he can't afford to quit right now.
The third one is a really good friend, a very honest person I'll give him that, however he already has another job and only shows up twice a week. He always comes up with crazy ideas he'll never follow up on and leave all the work to you and he barely put in any money when we started. He's also told me he won't quit his current job to work at the store until I've broken €200k/year, which is a huge ask because at it currently stands I need to grow 2.5x to reach that.
His redeeming quality is that he ran another store in the past, he's exceptional in knowledge of our market, has connections with suppliers and is very good with customers, all things I can work with or get some use out of, despite the fact that everything I learn will then be up to me to do but you take what you can get.

Your (luckily not yet) partners sound like a bad mix of my numbers two and three. No money, no commitment and already busy with other full time jobs they are unwilling to let go until you've already proven your concept (meaning after all the hard work has been done).
I'd say never sign anything with them. I suggest you start on your own first as a side hustle until your concept is proven, then get everything in writing. You don't get equal shares as me if you work 5 hours and I work 40.

Take their silence on slack as a serious warning. They don't care and you shouldn't spend your day trying to get them to care. You should spend it working on YOUR business. Once results are in, they'll care. And by then, they'll have to put their money down if they want a piece of it.

You are looking for that bit of madness in your partners, the same one you have when you juggle 7 different jobs just to get things off the ground (website, graphics, concept, marketing etc.).
The kind of madness that my number one guy had when I told him dude we are starting a store and you'll have to work in it full time for free for at least a year, save from some cash here and there we'll manage to scrounge for you, are you in? And he said "Let's do it".
Without this madness, people will just choose the cushy job they already have while you break your back, only coming to you once things go well to claim their share of YOUR work.

Obviously all this is just my opinion as an outsider, take it as you will as I'm not in your shoes.

Hmmm sounds like you have some similar experiences. Recently I tried delegating tasks and they all managed to get it done, even though it was just a small job each. One of my brothers said that I am the natural leader and should just delegate a lot more. I was thinking I can start turning up the heat on tasks that need to be done, and if they don't do it then I can edge them out that way.

Thanks for sharing though your input is appreciated

 

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