ASK ANDY - SHOULD YOU LAUNCH A STARTUP WITH A FRIEND?

WHEN MY BONOBOS cofounder, Brian Spaly, and I had a falling-out in 2009, two years after starting the company, we made a strange decision. We decided that we would share the details of how our partnership fell apart with the community where our friendship and our company were forged: Stanford Business School.

- ANDY DUNN

Brian and I were not on speaking terms at the time, in part due to my cowardice in not picking up the phone. But we still held great affinity for each other, and we felt in some ways let down by what we had learned-or should I say, not learned-in school.

Most of the case-study protagonists who come through Stanford reflect the survivorship bias of entrepreneurs who have made it. But what about the lessons from those who failed? And where were the stories of the cofounders who got divorced? Brian and I felt that we would have benefited if someone had talked to us about the dark side of partnering with friends.