In June my cofounders and I split up. They went on to an accelerator and I'm looking for other opportunities in similar spaces.<p>People have asked why we split during both interviews and casual conversations, and I'm never quite sure what to say. So far I've erred on the conservative side of offering an explanation: "not the right partners", "different visions", etc. This seems intuitively like the right thing to do. My intuition is often wrong, of course, and I've been asked for more details on a few occasions.<p>What's a fellow to do?<p>Many thanks.
Interview setting:<p>"The business model was not viable."<p>Which is true, and does not cast its dissolution as <i>primarily</i> over personality issues, which is also probably true since if the everyone had been looking at an actual pile of cash, the vision for the company would have been kicked down the road instead of being everyone's favorite distraction from the fact that there was not a large pile of cash.<p>Follow up with, "I think we all, really learned a lot," to emphasize it was a group effort.<p>If its a long term setting, don't be afraid to provide the interviewer with the potentially false impression that you would never do another startup. There are many settings that don't want potential entrepreneurs.<p>Good luck.
You have been asked for more details because "different visions", without an explanation, is the kind of safe answer people give when they want to hide messy breakups.<p>So, in my opinion, an ideal answer would be like "I thought the product would be better marketed as a SaaS for physicians, but my partner wanted to emphasize ease of use and sell directly to patients on the App Market."
Just let it all hang out there. What did you do wrong, what did they do wrong? Was it just not the right team for the right idea?<p>I'be been through the worst possible breakup, and the only way to move on is master your own interpretation of events and how to be better the next time.<p>Don't blame others .. even if they are fault. If they are blame yourself in not finding good co-founders.<p>Startups are HARD. Fail, Fail, Fail again, learn each time and one day it will be your day.