Question..
How do you politely tell a co-founder they are wrong?
We are creating an AI product in the
real estate industry and the problem is that my co-founder is.. well.. a programmer, he doesn't understand business too well. The business guy is me.
But obviously there is an emotional attachment to anything a programmer builds, and they feel whatever they build is right.
The problem is - my co founder has started saying - nah we're not going to make this just for
real estate.. we're going to make it so EVERYBODY could use it..
But all of the data and everything we are using is specifically for
REAL ESTATE. I'm trying to get this point across but I don't know how to do it without coming across as rude. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks..
Proper preparation and planning prevents piss poor performance
Even when I hire someone doing something as simple as being a lawn care worker, I go over everything.
I preemptively tell them the timeline for when they can expect raises and that they will be no sooner than X months, IF they have demonstrated xyz proficiencies and consistency and is still up to management discretion.
When you bring someone on you need to have preemptive conversations about responsibilities, expectations, and have an understanding.
Here’s the trick: everyone is okay agreeing to things upfront. Then these little shits try to play games later.
So you have the conversation upfront in a way where they are agreeing and happy to go along with the terms.
“Hey, this’ll be a great partnership, you’re the tech guy and we need that, I’m the business guy and we need that. I’m not gonna mess with the tech stuff because that would be F*cking with what YOU’RE good at. Right?”
“Yeah totally”
“Sweet, I’ll take care of the business stuff. Stuff like the direction of where we take the company and who we market to and stuff. A lot of partnerships go south because people mix up all the responsibilities and everyone gets all f*cked up. Don’t want that”
“For sure bro”
Alright sick. No worries just wanted to get on the same page before we get going. I want this to succeed.”
“Yeah definitely let’s kill it”
“Sick bro fo sho”
If you don’t have the conversational finesse to preemptively cover your a$$ expect to pay the consequences later.
I would have the idea to create a notion page of our strategy that stays fixed and uneditable for the other guy. Company name, plan, strategy,
goals, and something like “management ethos” where it lists off responsibilities and expectations and agreements and you make it like the next day after having that conversation. Frame it as a structure that helps keep the company professional. It does help that, but it also serves as a “don’t be a pain in my a$$” page.
Then, you use the pages enough during your business operations where it doesn’t get buried and forgotten.
It’s VERY easy to reference that page often and say “pls review company overview page” and don’t need to say anything else.
He probably wouldn’t even bring it up, knowing in the back of his mind he has no ground to stand on anyways so it never becomes a problem. He would look like such a moron there’s less of a chance his brain would be able to rationalize himself not being a hypocritical idiot trying to encroach on your stuff.
Very typical for young, extroverted business ‘bros’ to not prepare for this stuff. Need to be more analytical and thoughtful of problems that will come up and how to handle it upfront. It avoids a TON of drama.
it’s a robot made out of speakers.
