Bangalore: While preparing water in the laboratory, we are so careful about the bond between the two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. A small unbalance in the chemical reaction and the entire experiment is a waste. Similar is the success story of a startup. A strong chemistry among the co-founders will produce a successful startup. And the chemicals to be put together during the experiment are trust, transparency, adaptability, and positive attitude. With the proper balance of these chemicals, you ensure the success of your organization.

"There should be a match of value system and frequency in terms of thinking among the co-founders. The co-founders should have transparency in terms of ideas, thoughts and values to let each one feel comfortable and participative in the process of running the business," says Mahesh Kumar Tallam, Founder, Goodvalue.in, an e-commerce company.

Many Angel Investors and VCs fund the startups where they see a great chemistry among the co-founders who seem to have fun together. The eventual bitter estrangement of co-founders leads to the failure of companies. Eventually, the co-founders split and start a new company on the similar product or service line and with similar strategy, ultimately leading nowhere. "In such cases starts the tug of war between them. To safeguard oneself from such situation, the co-founders should sign a shareholders" agreement stating that no partner can start a similar kind of company with similar strategy after quitting the organization," says Vaibhav Tewari, Co-Founder, o2s360, provider of retail CRM and loyalty solutions.

There are exceptions in every situation. Facebook even though saw conflict among the co-founders, have gone for IPO. Not everyone is lucky enough. In case of Mobisy, the co-founders split and started new company in the similar space. "When me and Robin had any issue with a particular decision, we agreed to disagree for it but with a good motive. All we wanted was the success of our company. Even though it might hurt our ego, we still took decisions based on the circumstances," adds Tallam.

For a safer edge, it is important to have a co-founder who have seasonal corporate background, have experience, ready to provide space to other founders in terms of thought and idea. "Putting the problem across board and solving with a two point perspective addressing the issue is a much better idea than putting across the decision from one end. The basic skills required, i.e., the value system, should be present between the partners. If the balance does not match, it results to conflict," adds Tewari.

Having common focus on goal and passion to achieve it binds the co-founders. Pragmatic ways should be adopted to overcome the difficulties. Each co-founder should have empathy for the other and a confidence that if one needs the help, the other is always available at a hands distance. If still there exists an imbalance, it is good for the organization to safeguard their ideas and products. "Intellectual Property is the best you can do to safe guard it. The other co-founders should also be ready to handle the disaster that the co-founder would bring to their business. These can be in terms of bad PR. You should safeguard your employees and marketing partners," adds Varun Agarwal, Co-Founder, AlmaMater, an e-commerce company.

Skipping a company and starting a new one within the same space is not ethical and will bring a lot of imbalance in the startup ecosystem. It brings in lot of bad blood, enmity and jeopardizes the fraternity and creates a unhealthy atmosphere difficult for survival.