Starting a business: 4 things to remember when conflicts occur between members of the founding group

In any partnership, disagreement is inevitable, even when debates take place in a relaxed, free atmosphere and everyone seems to respect each other's opinions. In an immature, inexperienced and unstable working environment like startups, disagreements are likely to occur frequently with higher levels. Even if it is impossible to control, there is a possibility of "infection". In the best-selling book, Mr. Founder's Dilemmas , Professor Noam Wasserman of Harard University of Business gave a "shocking" figure (based on a research study). Made with 10,000 Founder of 4,000 startups: 65% of potential startups fail only because they cannot settle the conflict between the founders in the startup team.

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So what solution to resolve the conflict or more precisely how to make disagreement situations not become serious among the founders? Below is the sharing of successful entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia - who have faced similar situations, their stories and secrets to help them keep in harmony with the bright set up to get the current success.

1. Control your "ego"

According to Quek Siu Rui - co-founder of Carousell e-commerce application, it directly connects buyers and sellers, running on devices using Android and iOS operating systems, based in Singapore - sharing: "We have a strong focus on the mission that has been directed from the beginning, and established a mutual agreement that each person's personal and ego issues need to be controlled."

Carousell was founded in 2012 by 3 young men from Singapore National University. After a period of operation and achieved certain success (8 million products sold, made 8 transactions per minute .), this startup quickly attracted capital of 6.8 million USD from many big funds like Golden Gate Ventures, Sequoia Capital, 500 Startups, Rakuten and some other investors.

"We always tell each other that what is best for all Carousell loyal users will help us stand and go straight on the path to fulfilling our intended mission. Each member is comfortable with the feedback and opinions from the rest of the team ".

Co-thought with Carousell , Xurpas - startup founded by Raymond Racaza, Nix Nolledo and Fernando Garcia in 2011 specializing in designing applications and games for Southeast Asian markets has also quickly achieved very proud success. Become one of the largest technology companies in the Philippines . When talking about the conflict between founding members, Racaza said: "We always maintain a professional relationship. We make constructive criticisms. Some people intend to turn it on. into private conversations, but we don't do it all members understand that everyone wants to be good for each other and we work for the benefit of the whole team ".

2. Do not confuse each other's roles and tasks

If all individuals in an organization share the same thought, it would be wonderful. However, this also leads to a fact that sometimes similarities, like differences, can cause problems. If the founders are good at something, the conflict will happen when deciding whether the best person is in charge of the job.

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Racaza shared that Xurpas is very lucky to have avoided this problem: "We never overlap each other's work. I manage activities. My passion is to turn a pure idea into an idea. I thought of the product as feasible, then developed and tested it. My role is to drive the ship, my co-founder is responsible for the vision of Xurpas: which way we will go, on Where, what are the chances, the challenges are harsh . And the third person will be in charge of technology because he is an architect. Distinguishing such roles makes the team more dynamic. and this has been proven over the years, we are partners of each other since the date of the Aurora and now we are still the same. "

3. Don't blame

Ashwin Jeyapalasingam and Viren Doshi - Malaysia 's founders of CatchThatBus - a big buzz in the transportation sector stressed that startups should not look into each other's eyes regularly. However, at appropriate times, observing the opponent's expression will help to understand each other's meaning and control conflict more easily.

According to Jeyapalasingam , "successful / healthy partnerships - regardless of form, whether it is an individual or a job - it is important, once the common decision is agreed, both must accept the results and consequences of enforcing that decision. Never blame each other for any reason. "

Jeyapalasingam added: "Our recent contradiction is the case of a competitor lowering prices to win customers. We have made a difficult decision in whether to accept the agreement. It is not beneficial to keep the customer or maintain the original price and let the competitor lower the price (losing the customer). Finally, all members choose the second option although there are still differences in interest. Fortunately, soon after, everyone was happy with the loss, learned from the experience and continued to look for new opportunities. "

4. Share with someone outside the company

Finding an outsider who plays an intermediary role and asking for advice from them is a reasonable solution.

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Vinnie Lauria - Golden Gate Ventures' founding partner shared with his colleagues: "Sometimes, you can't discuss with your co-founder something and it is probably very difficult Present it to investors, at the moment, the best solution is to share it with another founding member, who may have experienced a problem like you and can give you a few. helpful advice".

For Jeyapalasingam, having a network of advisers is very important. "We are very fortunate to have the support of neutral people who can give advice most objectively - whether they are experts from another startup, investor or adviser." .

After all the above secrets, the most important thing is communication . It sounds obvious but many founders often let their emotions and "me" overwhelm, causing conflict to become more serious. When emotions have exploded, the discussion is no longer based on reason.

Conflict is unavoidable but if it is well controlled, it can completely strengthen the partnership between the members of the startup team.