A founder named Sarah had built a profitable company with her cofounder over six years, generating $10M revenue, but they had not spoken live for months, communicating only through Slack or email. Research indicates that 65 percent of high-potential ventures fail due to cofounder conflict, not market fit or funding (Wasserman, 2012). Conflicts often first appear as performance gaps, role drift, and increasingly transactional communication. Three recurring patterns include withdrawal cycles, where one founder becomes hypervigilant and the other does less; role erosion, where boundaries blur and the "outperforming" founder makes decisions in the other's domain; and emotional debt, where unresolved tension accumulates as resentment and eroded trust. Employees notice this unstable foundation, leading to delayed decisions and unclear rules.