In today’s high-growth startup environment, flashy pitch decks and unicorn ambitions often mask a quieter threat: internal breakdowns between founders, shareholders, and board members. According to the Harvard Business Review, nearly 65% of startup failures stem from co-founder conflict, rather than commercial failure.
In this VIVOS-hosted roundtable, co-founders Ray Tay and Ivan McAdam O’Connell bring together a powerhouse legal panel to confront one of the most under-discussed yet damaging risks to early-stage ventures: founder disputes and boardroom rifts.
Joined by Melanie Ho, Jeremiah Huang, and Marc, the conversation delves into why these conflicts arise, what founders can do to prevent them, and how legal design and governance structures can be utilised not just to resolve disputes, but to build trust and resilience into a business from the outset.
Startups don’t fail because of bad ideas; they fail because founders drift apart. Misaligned visions, silent resentments, and unspoken assumptions are the real ticking time bombs.
Melanie: “A lot of these issues arise not because somebody’s a bad person, but because expectations are not aligned. People feel that they’ve put in more effort, or more money, or more time, and they want to be recognised. And that recognition doesn’t come because it’s not in the contract.”
Marc : “It’s much easier to negotiate when everything’s good and happy... when people are upset and angry and not on the same page anymore, that’s when it gets hard. That’s when it gets expensive.”
Dodging uncomfortable conversations doesn’t protect relationships; it delays disaster. Define equity, control, and resolution paths early.
Jeremiah: “Nobody joins a board expecting conflict. But it only takes one disagreement over money, direction, or recognition—and suddenly people stop speaking. That’s why alignment needs to happen before the champagne is popped, not after the fallout.”
Good lawyers aren’t just for damage control. The best ones help you design frameworks that grow with your business and protect its foundations.
Ivan: “The whole idea of governance is about creating a framework to ensure that you’re not relying on personalities. That you’re not relying on people being best friends for the next ten years.”
You can’t scale chaos. If co-founders don’t communicate, trust, and align, even airtight contracts won’t save the venture.
Ray: “We always ask founders: What happens if this relationship breaks down? If the friendship fades? If you’re deadlocked on a critical decision? If you haven’t planned for those moments, you’re not protecting your business—or each other.”
This roundtable is a must-listen for anyone involved in building, backing, or advising early-stage ventures.
Startups are built on trust, but they survive on structure.
This roundtable makes one thing clear: legal design isn’t just a defence mechanism, it’s a strategic driver of long-term growth. For any founder or investor serious about building a resilient, investible business, innovation must be matched with governance maturity, clear decision rights, and alignment that’s built to last.
The legal experts were unanimous: address the difficult conversations early, define your roles and rights upfront, and don’t rely on goodwill alone to sustain the partnership. Because successful companies aren’t those without conflict, they’re the ones prepared to handle it.
Let VIVOS help you make the leap from dreamer to doer—with clarity and confidence.
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