I joined a friend's startup, it was five academics and me (I have an industry background). There were a few disagreements about the approach, I found the academics didn't have much experience about how to market a product, it led to creating a few products with insufficient feedback, and they failed when released (we couldn't find anyone to buy them, the prospective customers we had talked to and had said "yeah sure sounds like a good idea" were, unsurprisingly, reticent to buy after we'd built it).
There were also disagreements with the CEO, he was a PhD my friend had recruited, and he didn't have any experience with anything but his PhD, which led to my friend and me having to spend tons of time trying to show him how his proposed solutions to problems wouldn't work.
In the end, my friend laid me off 364 days after I was hired, one day before my cliff vested, which is very illegal under Canadian law. I got an attorney and sued them, but the attorney slowly kept ramping the cost up and up, until she told me the entire lawsuit would probably cost around $100k. I doubt their company is worth that much, so I dropped the suit, and have resorted to voodoo instead, which is much cheaper.
Just so I don't just mention the negative, I tried to start a company with another friend two more times, it didn't go well each time because of various understandable reasons on both sides. I've now joined another startup this friend has founded, which is doing very well (we're at 200 people now) and it's one of the best jobs I've had.
It's definitely not all negative, but it's like any relationship. If you don't check for compatibility from the start, and ensure that all parties are mature and willing to put in the work to make it successful, you're probably going to be disappointed.
It appears that individuals often invest far more diligence and scrutiny in choosing cars, electronics, partners, and properties than they do in selecting a co-founder.
As I've heard before, founding a company is like marriage without the sex. You really are legally bound together, as well as emotionally and socially (to a lesser extent).
As you'd expect, founder divorces can get messy.
I think it is best for founders to discuss it before they start the company. Hash out the exit plan, have those hard conversations, write it all down and agree to it. Sign it, then put it away, start building the companu, and hope you never have to use it.
But if you do; if people's situations or desires change, then you've got the path forward for an exit. You don't have to make one up on the fly after the company is worth something and emotions are high.
Source: been a founder, been a team member who watched some founder divorces from a distance
Were all the people that were hired cofounders? Also, why would you need a hired CEO, wouldn't your friend fill that role? The arrangement you all had seems strange.
Three cofounders, three advisors. I think my friend's thinking was that we'd have someone from technology (me), a scientist (him) and a business person (the CEO), but unfortunately it turned out that picking someone at random to be the CEO of your company isn't the best strategy.
I advised that my friend become CEO instead and that the then-CEO become more of an operations person (COO? Titles in a three-person startup are weird), which was a role the CEO wanted more anyway, but I think the advisors didn't want to go for that.
Tell me about it, those invoices were wasted money, and I'm fairly bitter about the "oh this is a slam dunk, it'll be $2k" "oh we need $2k more for X" "and another for Y" "oh well you're looking at $100k".
There were also disagreements with the CEO, he was a PhD my friend had recruited, and he didn't have any experience with anything but his PhD, which led to my friend and me having to spend tons of time trying to show him how his proposed solutions to problems wouldn't work.
In the end, my friend laid me off 364 days after I was hired, one day before my cliff vested, which is very illegal under Canadian law. I got an attorney and sued them, but the attorney slowly kept ramping the cost up and up, until she told me the entire lawsuit would probably cost around $100k. I doubt their company is worth that much, so I dropped the suit, and have resorted to voodoo instead, which is much cheaper.