Beyond the Black

Most co-founder disputes don't explode — they surface slowly. And they often arrive not when a startup is failing, but when it finally succeeds.In Part Two of When Founders Fight, Maitrabh continues the conversation with Vasundhara Shankar — a corporate lawyer who has sat on the difficult side of these calls — on what the law actually does when founder alignment breaks down. The acquisition standoff, where one founder wants to sell and the other doesn't, and who really holds the power to decide. The shotgun clause: a buy-sell mechanism that looks perfectly fair on paper and can quietly force a founder out. And the rarest thing in the startup world — a clean, graceful exit that doesn't destroy what was built.If Part One was about how the cracks begin, Part Two is about what happens when the stakes are highest.Beyond the Black is an independent podcast about the law that startups actually run into.Guest: Vasundhara Shankar · Host: Maitrabh Chauhan

Most co-founder breakups don’t start with betrayal – they start with a conversation two people remember differently and no paper to back it up. In this episode of Beyond the Black, Maitrabh and lawyer‑founder Vasundhara unpack real co-founder fallouts, dead equity, IP traps, and the one hard conversation every founder needs to have before things blow up.

How do India's top lawyers actually build their careers? In the first episode of Beyond the Black, Maitrabh Chauhan speaks with Vasundhara Shankar — Managing Partner, Forbes India Top 100 Lawyer, and startup law specialist — about career choices, founding a firm, and what the legal profession in India really looks like from the inside.