In the era of Skype, web conferencing tools and collaboration software conventional wisdom says that distributed startup teams can be just as effective as those that are in person.

Conventional wisdom is wrong.  Or more precisely the people espousing the benefits of distributed startups teams are often distributed and therefore self rationalizing it.  Been there.

The reality is that a certain magic that happens when you’re in person is critical in a startup.  You attend five customer meetings together over a two-week period and after each meeting you replay the results in the office about what it meant.  The CEO weighs in with his perspectives, the head of product management disputes his conclusions and the marketing VP has a different take.

We spend hours of seemingly “wasted” time just in these informal chats simply shooting the shit.  With all the recent obsessions about “pivots” most people don’t realize that the more powerful pivots are the unnoticeable ones we make every day through these exchanges.  The conversations bleed into the sales messages the next time, they wend their way into software designs and form the plan of attach against competition.

Previously, I highlighted the legal aspects of structuring founder agreements. These are indeed very important but it is even more important to underscore that any agreement can be modified if the parties involved agree to do so. Therefore, a non-confrontational, positive approach is always the best way for a founding team to approach removing a co-founder. It is better to err on the side of being reasonable and generous to make things simple, quick and not get into legal disputes.

Author: Tim Berry is founder of Palo Alto Software, founder of bplans.com, co-founder of Borland International, author of books and software on business planning, and Stanford MBA.

Looking back now at more than 20 years of running my own business, it was rarely about anything as simple as just making money. Money mattered, no doubt; in fact we had a lot of debt resulting from the business during bad years, and no outside investment until much later, so money was the critical resource. But it was also about doing what I liked, building a place I liked to arrive at Monday morning, working with people I like and respect, and avoiding boredom. 

 

I don't think anybody builds a business without hard work. But it doesn't have to be all blood sweat and tears. I've always hated micromanagement, and I've never been good at negative feedback, so I've had to come up with some extra help to get through it without being a tyrant, but still building a business.