Hot Seat

Chapter 1. The Virtues of an Early Bankruptcy

One of the ironies of early-stage startups is that every ounce of the founders’ energy is spent on keeping them from collapsing, even as they flirt with disaster in every way imaginable. Perversely, though, the best thing that can happen to most startups is to collapse in disaster, quickly. That’s because most startups instead collapse in disaster slowly, which is the only worse alternative.

This was the most challenging chapter to write. I have heard countless heartbreaking stories. In each case, an honest and early conversation between founders could have avoided a world of hurt.

But I can’t tell you most of them.

I talked to many founders about their painful founder breakups, but almost all of them asked me not to include them in the book. The shame of the founder implosion is a terrible stigma. Founder conflict happens constantly, but it’s a silent killer. Everyone involved feels terrible, and nobody wants to talk about it.

Well, almost nobody.

 Elissa Shevinsky is the cofounder, CEO, and self-described Ladyboss of Glimpse. Glimpse is the grown-up Snapchat: a mobile application that takes ephemeral messaging seriously. Glimpse’s CEO and CTO, at the time of this writing, are a compelling team that have been incredibly effective in growing their company. But that’s a fairly recent development.

For Elissa, the current state of affairs is the culmination of three years of pivoting, failed cofounder relationships, and general chaos. ...