This week, I received a call from a founder. He’s in a disagreement with the other cofounder of his company. Disagreements between people who spend significant time together regularly are inevitable (e.g., family, romantic partners). So, they’re bound to happen between entrepreneurs, who often have stronger opinions than the average person.

Disagreements between founders can fracture the relationship beyond repair and seriously impact the company if they’re not resolved. Cofounder disagreements are one of the top reasons early-stage companies fail.

These two founders decided to get help from a neutral third party. They hired a counselor who specializes in helping founding teams work through disagreements. Through this process, they got to the root cause of the issues and are now trying to work through them.

I’m hopeful that they’ll be able to resolve their disagreement and the company can get back to focusing on customers.