A composite case study. Names, sectors and timelines are changed. The pattern is drawn from real Irish partnerships.
He told her over coffee on a Saturday morning. He had been thinking about it for almost a year. He wanted out — not for any specific reason, just a slow accumulation of ones. He expected the conversation to take a few weeks to resolve. It took six months and roughly forty thousand euro in legal fees.
Founder exits are not, in themselves, expensive. The transaction is mechanically simple: a share buyback, a settlement of any outstanding director-loan balance, a release of personal guarantees. What makes them expensive is that almost no early-stage Irish company has a written process for them, which means every line of every clause has to be negotiated in real time, by people who are no longer aligned.
- Month 0Founder A informs Founder B he wants to leave within twelve months.
- Month 1First valuation conversation. No agreed methodology. Estimates differ by a factor of three.
- Month 2Each founder engages their own solicitor. Costs begin.
- Month 3Independent valuer engaged. Cost €8k. Report disputed by Founder A.
- Month 5Second independent valuer. Cost €6k. Report partially accepted.
- Month 6Buyback agreed at a number neither founder thinks is fair, paid over thirty-six months.
The early warning signs
- No agreed valuation methodology in the shareholders agreement.
- No defined notice period for a voluntary departure.
- No agreed process for engaging an independent valuer.
- No staged-payment or vendor-loan template ever drafted.
- Both founders quietly assuming the other would be reasonable when the time came.
The conversations they never had
- If one of us wants to leave, what is the process?
- How do we value the company at a moment when we genuinely disagree?
- Who chooses the independent valuer, and on what basis?
- Are we willing to stage payments to make a buyout affordable for the company?
"By the end I wasn't negotiating with my co-founder. I was negotiating with a person I used to know."
What PartnerReady would have flagged
- SEVERE risk on Exit: no notice period, no valuation methodology, no buyback mechanism.
- HIGH risk on Money: no agreed staged-payment or vendor-loan structure.
- HIGH risk on Decisions: no defined process for engaging an independent valuer.
- A specific recommendation to draft a full exit and valuation clause within thirty days.
Questions to ask yourself
- If your co-founder told you next Saturday that they wanted to leave, what is the next step?
- How would you value the company today if you genuinely disagreed?
- Who, in writing, is your agreed independent valuer?
- What is the longest payment period the company could absorb without affecting operations?
The PartnerReady check will usually surface the underlying risk in under ten minutes.
Twenty questions across equity, exits, IP, decision-making and commitment. No account required. No data leaves your device until you choose to generate the report.