i've been working on a startup for the past 24 months with my cofounder - i'm technical and she's mostly focused on business side (with basic frontend skills). we got funded roughly 18 months ago for an idea i came up with, was excited about, and found some traction.
since then we pivoted away from it. we've roughly pivoted almost every month to something new. there is no longer any vision or clear problem we're trying to solve. each month is our team simply fishing for ideas in different industries and domains hoping to strike gold.
my cofounder and i don't see eye to eye on most things anymore and the relationship has also deteriorated significantly. my cofounder and i disagree upon what problems to focus on. for her, ideas only resonate if there are competitors who've raised $X million or hit certain revenue targets with no regard for interest or insights for a problem/industry. i'd much rather work on problems where i have some inherent interest and/or urge to solve the problem but it's hard to drive a shared vision between us both. this is a constant point of friction.
after 24 months of working together, i'm now considering quitting my own startup to either go do another one or take a job where i can find problems and a future cofounder. has anyone been through anything similar in the past? how did you navigate this?
As for pivoting ….. Steve Blank says, "A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model."
So yes you need to be trying to find what works. Maybe try to decide together what you work on and for how long. But you do need to be actively searching.
You are correct though, the money should come after it’s found.
He did say he had early traction I wonder what happened to that.
It's not like this is an iron rule, but it's something you should be thinking about. If the only things in common between your new direction and your old one is your cofounder and some of your tech stack, you should have a good reason to keep the investors on, right?