How To Navigate Co-Founder Relationships with Lee Jacobs
b'On this episode of Venture Stories, Erik is joined by Lee Jacobs (@leejacobs), partner at Edelweiss Capital. He recently wrote a great post about breaking up with his co-founder at a previous company. Lee and Erik discuss the post, some of the thorny issues around co-founder relationships, and investing strategy more broadly.
Lee tells the story of the startup he co-founded and how he came to realize that he and the company needed to part ways. He talks about what he did well in the situation, including getting third-party coaching, and what he would do differently next time. Lee\\u2019s former co-founder was one of his groomsmen at Lee\\u2019s wedding, so in his case things worked out for the best in the long-run.
He talks about how to avoid blowing up your startup via a "co-founder breakup" and why open and honest communication is so important. They talk about having a \\u201cstartup prenup\\u201d between the co-founders, how to pick a co-founder, and why these relationships are analogous to other types of non-work relationships.
They also talk about investing more broadly, including how Lee and Erik have gotten into investing globally, how to choose founders to back, why as Lee says \\u201cit\\u2019s okay to be a generalist,\\u201d and why he is sector-agnostic when it comes to companies he backs.
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Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.'