If I had a brain tumor I'd want my friend/cofounder to use it to pimp our startup. If she can move our business forward while I'm ill, that's wonderful for both of us.
>If I had a brain tumor I'd want my friend/cofounder to use it to pimp our startup.
Even if my ill friend/cofounder "wanted" that (which amounts to "was ok with it"), I still wouldn't do it. Being human is more important than pimping a company for the big cash out.
Brain tumors are exactly the sort of thing that tend to make people re-evaluate your priorities, so I'm not sure how good of a guide your unworried self is to a situation like that.
Besides that, there's also the possibility that pimping it the wrong way will put people off dealing with the startup. That seems to be the majority response here, and the article also made a strong negative impresion on me. Now, on the one hand I want the startup to succeed since his co-founder is either facing massive medical costs for all the neurosurgery (at worst) or a massive increase in health insurance premiums (at best). On the other I don't like being manipulated into feeling I should use/support this firm because of my natural sympathy for anyone who has brain cancer.
If I had a cancer with kids, then I would want my business partner to pimp the start-up as much as possible to raise the value of my shares for my family.
Stop judging from a distance, or at least get some binoculars.