[keithpeter]

OK, I may have misunderstood quotes like this...

"The tension between us (the cofounders) eventually arose and grew. I paid less attention to ours conflicts because I felt it was useless to waste energy."

I took 'cofounder' to mean an ownership stake. Therefore at least as regards my limited experience, a seat on 'board' and therefore access to management accounts.

Were you an employee? (I'm the one volunteering to proof read the blog post, so its best if we are clear).

[oncletom]

Yes I had shares in the company.

Technically, there were two companies:

- a holding where the cofounders owned shares as of 52, 30, 12 and 6 percent. This company had no business activity and no employee. I owned 6 percent of its 100K capital; - a startup which was 100% owned by the holding, sharing the same CEO. I was employee and paid by this company (well, "paid"…).

I had a vote decision in the holding, not the startup. And for some reason I had a reason not to work anymore for the startup (including being fired when we think about it), I would have to sell my shares. If you want to evict someone, this is a great system.

Also, the 12% shares were held by the spouse/partner of the CEO, creating a 50/50 balance which let all the power in his hands, whatever the scenario is.

That is a reason why fighting was useless. And making a viable platform was more a chance for us to get funded, to have an external observer who could eventually rectify the power balance.

[trhway]

when i was very young - 20 years old - i was a part of similar situation once. I hope i learned form my mistakes :) The main lesson is that you're just an employee with 6% of [easily claw-back-able] shares, nothing more. Whereis you sound like you felt like you were something more than that. You didn't even had the power to initiate audit check of paperwork and financial info - minimum power of a "minor" stakeholder.

And this even without getting into having CEO girlfriend in the mix. Man, the time-proven standard practice to not have GF/relatives/etc... in the chain of command of their BF/relative/etc.. exists for the reason.