There is a recurring piece of advice in the startup world that says you should never mix friendship with business. However, after 12 years of profitability and organic growth at MarsBased, reality has taught us that working with friends is not only possible but can be a competitive advantage if expectations are managed from day zero.

In this episode of Building MarsBased, I open up the black box of our founding story to explain how Xavi, Jordi, and I went from being classmates to co-founders, and why we made the difficult decision to leave a fourth friend out just before signing the company incorporation. I take a deep dive into our atypical organizational structure where we decided not to have a single CEO, but rather divide leadership into three areas of absolute responsibility (Tech, Operations, and Marketing) while democratizing cross-functional decisions.

Throughout the video, I detail how we resolve conflicts using asynchronous communication via Linear to remove ego from discussions, how we define our salaries based on the company’s financial health (bootstrapping) rather than investment rounds, and what our philosophy is regarding equal equity splits. If you are considering starting something with your close circle, here you will find our real-world experience on how to align priorities, manage friction, and prevent silent resentment from killing both the company and the friendship.