In the words of Sam Altman, former Y-Combinator President, “The number one cause of early death for startups is co-founder blowups.”
Having worked with 100’s of founders and 50+ co-founder teams, and pulling from my own startup experience, I concur—what Sam is saying is true.
Startups thrive on growth. And while hypergrowth poses a challenge to executives who must constantly grow as leaders and “give away their legos” it will pose an even greater challenge to your co-founder partnership, forcing you and your co-founder to evolve your dynamic or fall out of alignment and fail.
With this in mind, I created a free video series on “How to Run a Co-Founder Sync” teaching and demo-ing everything you need to know on how to run a recurring co-founder meeting with the express purpose of expanding your co-founder partersnhip’s trust, resilience, and performance.
When to invest in your co-founder relationship?
Prior to becoming a coach, I was a founder for 7 years, building my company with a close childhood friend.
Our friendship was a superpower in the early days of our business—we knew each others’ strengths, weaknesses, and triggers inside and out. However, as our company grew, our work partnership did not and we avoided the hard conversations we needed to have. Our friendship, which had been a strength, became a weakness.
Successful co-founders are honest about this challenge from the outset of their partnership—our partnership is going to grow and change, which will be both scary and rewarding.
Co-founders should have co-founder syncs (meetings designed to check-in and work on your relationship) throughout your time together—sometimes at a higher frequency (at the beginning of your partnership, at big milestones like fundraising, and during times of change/conflict).
This video series is aimed at early-stage founders who can’t afford a co-founder coach but want to do this work and pre-empt co-founder conflict.
Who is this video series for?
Early-stage venture-backed co-founders (seed - Series A), business partners, and new project co-creators.
Founders who cannot afford a dedicated co-founder coach (which can be helpful and efficient, given the complexity of this work) or do not want to commit to one yet.
Co-founders who are working on communication proactively vs co-founders who are experiencing intense conflict immediately.
Why? Once co-founder contempt sets in, the level of skill needed to navigate these waters becomes much harder.
How to Use these Videos:
Have one co-founder own the process of watching these videos leading your co-founder syncs.
At the onset of doing this work, plan to have a weekly or bi-weekly co-founder sync for ~3-months.
Setting the expectation that learning this process and these skills effort helps encourage resilience through the process and greater success.
After watching these videos, set up your first co-founder meeting. Use a sample agenda like the one below and pick check-ins and activities to do with your co-founder that feel like a 5-15% risk.
If you have additional questions about these videos or this process feel free to reach me at nathan@sharpend.co.
Watch the videos here.
And, feel free to use the sample agenda below.
Sample Agenda:
-Check-In: (10 minutes)
-Naming Strengths and Weaknesses: (15 minutes)
-Feedback: (25 minutes)
-Conclusion: (10 minutes)