This paper addresses co-founder responses to power issues in new firm creation processes. Issues deriving from distributed ownership and lack of process control, may lead to co-founders responding in a variety of ways, such as by terminating a vesting schedule mistimed, by using the experience as a learning opportunity, by embracing the opportunity as a traditional job situation, or by acting as lead founders in full control. We traced co-founder responses to power issues in new venture creation processes through an exploratory, longitudinal study, collecting data from forty interviews with sixteen co-founders in a venture builder context. The analysis was conducted using a sensemaking lens. Venture builders are privately owned organizations dedicated to repeatedly engaging in new venture creation in collaboration with individual entrepreneurs, or co-founders. Although most nascent entrepreneurs seek independence as motive for starting a new firm, the level of independence is challenged by factors of distribution of ownership and control risking to create dissonance. The contribution of this paper has implications for entrepreneurship theory in how the individual sensemaking process may influence entrepreneurial persistence in situations with limited or reduced ownership and process control. For practitioners in the venture builder community, these findings are of importance as to how to pursue a career as an entrepreneur in such context. The paper therefore adds to the understanding of distribution of control among co-founders in new ventures.