Entrepreneur loses $60k over a handshake deal with his best friend and business partner: 'Lost the money. Lost the friend.'

Here's a friendly reminder to get all agreements documented in writing, even if you're working with your best friend.

We've all seen how this dynamic plays out in business and in life. We saw it in The Social Network. We probably know examples in our personal lives. Two besties get into business with one another and expect their working relationship to remain strong and steadfast regardless of the obstacles that may come. However, the lack of predictability when it comes to business makes it pretty impossible to know with absolute certainty that a friendship can withstand the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship.

Of course, many working relationships can succeed against these odds, but it takes transparency and fairness for these relationships to overcome these hurdles. This young entrepreneur started a small business startup venture with his best friend and fellow college students. He provided the technical expertise, while the author provided connections and initial funding. Their understanding was that any profits would be split 50/50. However, they made the eternally naive mistake of failing to get any of that in writing.

By the time the company actually started to earn money, the author's so-called "best friend" and co-founder suddenly had a change of heart regarding how profits should be divided between them. He felt that his contributions to the company were far more valuable and ended up claiming 70% of those earnings. Talk about betrayal!

We all know people in our lives who have spoken with regret about professional mistakes they might have made that haunt them for years. While we hope that this author gets back on his feet and learns from these egregious errors, it's difficult not to feel like he's going to be haunted by this mistake for a long time.
Still, he knows better now, and here's hoping that there are other aspects of this professional experience that he can look back on fondly. After all, he's a young professional with plenty of time to recover and improve. Ideally, he'll be able to reflect on this chapter of his life as a formative moment from college rather than a missed opportunity to make it big at a young age.
via Vitaly Gariev

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
"Trusted a handshake deal with my best friend. He denies it ever happened. Lost $60K."

via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Vitaly Gariev

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Intrepid-Degree-6612
via Vitaly Gariev

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

Stay up to date by following us on Facebook!

Also From FAIL Blog

Longtime import client lashes out when faced with a $200K tariff bill, demands her importer cover the cost, when they refuse she attempts to handle it herself, racking up higher error costs: 'Come back to kindly ask us to do her imports again'

Trending Now

Guy responds politely to job rejection email, ends up scoring an interview in a positive turn of events: “Life is strange’

UPDATE: Entitled boy mom misses 27-year-old daughter's wedding to take 21-year-old son to Disneyland: 'I wanted to be petty. I told both my parents that it wasn't a problem to miss this event'

Entitled neighbor repeatedly steals a private parking spot for 2+ hours, insisting the owner should be more "neighborly;" so the owner calls a tow truck: 'I'm done. You don't get to guilt trip me'

Tax office rejects employee's work lunch deductions and claims they can drive home to make lunch, so the employee claims a larger deduction for mileage to and from work: ‘"Very well played..."’

Cake decorator calls out employer, refuses to bring glitter or fondant to work: 'The store... expects [me] to use my own money to decorate a cake'

'I had no intentions in someone else losing their job': Cabinet finisher is wrongly blamed for repeated customer rejections, brings in a consultant to review his work, ultimately exposing coworker’s improper prep process and leading to his termination