Aaron, I strongly disagree with your thesis as it is too lopsided. IMHO, the startups need BOTH. If the founder has a good investor – it’s great! And if it is just a good friend – it’s awesome! But such are not mutually exclusive, and I have a snicking suspicion that the failure of your startup had more to do with other issues – on top of bad advice from your friend/investor. So, count your blessings instead!

Donald Rumsfeld once said: “All generalizations are wrong, including this one”. So, the same goes for the conclusions you’ve made… And a good investor/friend fits quite nicely into a famous proverb, too: “Two heads are better than one”. Yet, if you still prefer the quotes from Aristotle, well: “The sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts combined”. As always, great posts I love to read. Keep up the good work!