5 years back… I almost ended the partnership just because I was hating the hard conversations.
But I discovered something in the real way as a co-founder.
Before starting WillStar Media, Mangesh was creating content, and I was just the video editor editing his videos. That was it. No big company. No big plan. Just two people working together.
One year later… in 2019. We decided to start a media company together.
But I’ve always been extremely introverted. And because of that, talking about things like salary, equity split, expectations, and responsibility was very hard for me. I didn’t know how to bring these things up. I worried about how he would react. I worried if I was asking for too much.
Still, every time I pushed myself to ask Mangesh a difficult question or start a tough conversation, something amazing happened:
– It became a little easier the next time.
– I became more confident in speaking up.
– And our bond became stronger and stronger.
Today, as the COO of a content production company and with Mangesh as our poster boy & a creator with 7M+ followers, we understand each other in a way that goes beyond words. Sometimes we can tell what the other person is thinking or struggling with just by eye contact or body language.
But that didn’t happen magically.
It happened because we faced the uncomfortable conversations we didn’t want to have.
Here’s what I have discovered in the last 6 years:
– Hard conversations don’t break good partnerships… they strengthen them.
– Avoiding the truth only makes everything harder later.
– Alignment is not a one-time talk; it’s something you work on over the years.
A strong co-founder culture isn’t built on saying “yes” to each other.
It’s built on understanding each other.
And understanding only grows when you dare to talk about the things that feel hardest to say.
If you’re building something with a co-founder, I’m curious: What tough conversation helped your partnership grow?