Thread by @dafrankel

High-quality startup problem: company starts to scale but one of the co-founders can’t grow at the same pace as the other. Good problem but a real challenge nonetheless. Here are some thoughts on how I’ve seen it handled well (and not). /1

First, it’s important to note that an inability to “scale” isn’t a value judgment. The notion that every 25-year-old who starts a company is the same as Bob Iger, Ginni Rometty, and others with decades of experience running large organizations is crazy. /2

Hustling the first million in revenue requires a completely different skill set than staffing, and operating a multi-faceted sales and marketing organization.

The hacks that built your MVP will likely prove unsustainable as you graduate to international scale and tight SLAs. /3

Rarely are all co-founders equally suited to the task of scaling. If you get the sense that one of the founders isn’t up to growing at the same pace as the company, face this head-on with empathy and communication. Here are a few key steps: /4

💬 Discuss amongst yourselves

In the best scenario, the founder in question recognizes that they aren’t in the right spot and honest dialogue can be had. If so, consider yourself lucky and think about how to harness this person’s talents for the good of the startup. /5

🇺🇳Make the other persons case

In the case of a disagreement about the state of affairs, a useful exercise is to have each person make the other’s case. Hopefully, this act of empathy helps the partners better understand the frustrations and motivations. /6

🔮 Consult advisors

In the event there is co-founder friction, and no 3rd co-founder to help add perspective, start by talking to informal advisors and work your way towards your investors. It’s better to first chat with your VC’s who most likely won’t lead the next round. /7

⚡️ Discern Superpowers

Unless there are unhealthy personality conflicts, the founder who is not scaling can almost certainly continue to add value. Work together to try and determine the person’s “superpower” and how to apply it to new challenges at the startup. /8

Here are a few common functional roles a co-founder can fit into if they’re no longer the right person to lead a specific functional team at the company. /9

🕵️‍♂️ “Skunkworks”

If the founder in question is technically brilliant, but not able to lead a large engineering org, putting that person in charge of a team working on some smaller new initiative can be a better use of their talents. /10

This is often hard to manage until the company reaches escape velocity. It’s also important that this group not be a “make-work” project, lest you confuse the team about priorities. /11

🤝 Head of BD

Often a more commercial co-founder can be a very impactful commercial “pioneer”, mining a new opportunity, establishing new channels and recruiting more seasoned execs as new line of business matures. /12