When friendship is tested in a business do you give more importance to the business or the friendship? Ravi gave an example of a situation where one of his previous businesses failed because of not listening to the sane advice of the board to fire his partner; he wanted to keep his friendship and retained the friend in the company. Panelists agreed that the best strategy in starting a business is to first find a good match for the venture and then make sure you can work with that person.