Why I Walked Away From Two Talented Founders

Recently, I was invited to join a team that had already launched a live product. It had some early traction, a few paying users, and two clearly capable technical founders. On paper, it made sense.

They were struggling with adoption. Their issue wasn’t engineering—it was positioning. One founder suggested throwing $2,000 into Google Performance Max to see what might happen. The idea was, “Maybe we’ll get more users... maybe they’ll pay.” But there was no clear marketing strategy, no user acquisition loop, and no structured way to learn from customers.

I knew I could help with that. But a few conversations in, it became clear: they didn’t want a partner—they wanted someone to execute what they already believed would work. The product had already failed its first launch. There was no PMF, but no appetite for change either.

I’ve seen this before. If you’ve been in early-stage teams, you probably have too.

The Product Doesn’t Sell Itself

Here’s something many technical founders don’t want to hear: if you’ve already launched, and people are visiting your page or signing up—but not sticking around—your problem probably isn’t distribution.

It’s product-market fit.

Maybe your product isn’t clear. Maybe your positioning is confusing. Maybe users are bouncing because they don’t get what your tool does or why they need it. That’s not a “marketing” problem in the traditional sense. That’s a signal that the product doesn’t yet solve an urgent, obvious problem.

And if you find yourself blaming users for “not using the tool correctly,” that’s a dangerous mindset—especially in B2C. If users need a tutorial to understand what your product is for, you've already lost.

Throwing money into paid ads at this stage won’t save you. It’ll just speed up the feedback loop that something’s off.

Don’t Ask for a Cofounder If You Want an Intern

A lot of founders think they want a cofounder. What they really want is someone to carry out their ideas without pushback.

They want someone to:

• “Run ads”
• “Launch the product on Product Hunt”
• “Get us users”

But when that person suggests something strategic—like user interviews, repositioning, or hypothesis testing—they get resistance.

That’s not a partnership. That’s top-down delegation wrapped in a fancy title.

If you’re not ready to share decision-making power, don’t call it a cofounder role. Hire a contractor. Be honest about it. Don’t dangle equity when what you want is low-cost labor.

Respect the Craft You Don’t Understand

I’m not an engineer. I would never walk into someone’s codebase and tell them how their backend should be structured. That’s not my lane.

But in the same way, if I’m brought in for growth, I expect my lane to be respected too. That means trusting my calls on messaging, testing, positioning, and funnel design—even if it’s uncomfortable. Especially when it challenges your assumptions.

Great founders give each other room to lead in their areas of strength. They don’t default to control when something feels unfamiliar.

No PMF? No Deal.

There’s this myth that a good marketer can make any product succeed. That’s fiction.

Experienced growth marketers know the signs of early traction—and the signs of premature scaling. We know when to lean in and when to walk.

The fastest way to waste time is to build on a foundation that’s not working and hope distribution will fix it. That’s not how this works. That’s how you burn out cofounders.

If your product hasn’t proven it solves a real need, no one can make it grow—not even the best.

Cofounders Build Each Other

I walked because there was no room to actually collaborate. There was no space for experimentation, no openness to shared problem-solving. Feedback was met with resistance instead of curiosity.

That’s not a foundation for trust. That’s not a cofounding relationship.

You don’t have to agree on everything. But you do have to align on how you work through disagreement. You need mutual respect, fast decision-making, and belief in each other’s judgment.

If that’s missing, the idea doesn’t matter. The team will fail first.

Final Thought

If you’re a technical founder thinking about bringing on a marketing or business cofounder, ask yourself:

• Am I ready to share ownership and decision-making?
• Am I actually looking for a partner—or just someone to execute my vision?
• Can I trust someone to challenge how I see the market?

And if you’re the person being invited in:

• Do you have a seat at the table or just a to-do list?
• Do they listen when you bring a different point of view?
• Are they willing to test ideas, or are they just looking for confirmation?

You don’t have to say yes to every opportunity. Especially not the ones that look good on paper, but feel off underneath.

The best teams don’t just build products—they build each other.