Attachment
8 min read
The Avoidant Founder in a Mixed Partnership
Avoidant attachment at work rarely looks like fear. It looks like competence. You stay composed when heated. Keep shipping. Protect autonomy, clear ownership, space to think.
Resources & insights
Frameworks for stronger partnerships.
Field notes, frameworks, and applied research on how co-founder partnerships actually hold up under pressure.
More articles
The library.
Attachment
8 min read
The Secure Founder's Blind Spot
If you score "secure" in attachment, your stability is real. It's also a trap. A guide to using your capacity well in mixed partnerships.
Partnership
12 min read
The Cofounder Survival Guide
Build partnerships that weather any storm. A practical framework for founders who want to get it right from the start.
Coming soon
Equity
How to Split Equity Fairly
A comprehensive guide to navigating one of the most difficult conversations cofounders face: dividing ownership.
Coming soon
Communication
Having Difficult Conversations
Learn frameworks for addressing tension, giving feedback, and resolving conflicts before they escalate.
Equity
5 min read
How to Split Equity Between Cofounders: The Guide
How to split cofounder equity fairly: weigh contributions, pick equal or weighted, add a 4-year vesting schedule with a one-year cliff, and document it.
Communication
6 min read
Cofounder Conflict Resolution: A Practical Guide
Resolve cofounder conflict before it breaks the company: separate facts from interpretation, use pre-agreed decision rights, and document the agreements.
Partnership
5 min read
Cofounder Roles and Responsibilities: How to Split
How to divide cofounder roles and responsibilities: map functional areas, give one owner final say per area, and document the agreements so they stay current.
Leadership
6 min read
Leadership Team Alignment: The Complete Guide
Leadership team alignment is how a leadership team operates together — shared direction, clear roles, decision rights, priorities, and trust. Here is how to build it.
Partnership
5 min read
How Investors Evaluate a Founding Team
What VCs actually look at when they size up a founding team: complementary skills, alignment, experience, resilience, and the relationship itself.
Coaching
5 min read
How to Become a Startup (Cofounder) Coach
A practitioner's path to becoming a startup and cofounder coach: the experience, ICF credential options, niche choice, coaching hours, and building a real practice.
Partnership
5 min read
CEO vs CTO: Who Does What in a Startup
A startup CEO owns selling, capital, and direction. The CTO owns what you build and how. Here is the clean split, the overlap, and how to hold it.
Leadership
4 min read
5 Alternatives to CliftonStrengths and DISC for Teams
The best CliftonStrengths and DISC alternatives for teams, plus one honest question: are you typing individuals, or measuring how the team operates together?
Partnership
4 min read
Why Co-CEOs Usually Fail (and What to Do Instead)
A co-CEO structure works in rare cases and fails in most. Here is why dual CEO models break, when they hold, and how to divide authority instead.
Equity
5 min read
What to Include in a Cofounder Agreement
A cofounder agreement must cover roles, equity, vesting, IP, decision authority, compensation, confidentiality, and exit terms. Here is the full checklist.
Conflict
5 min read
How to End a Cofounder Partnership Cleanly
Ending a cofounder partnership without killing the company: a step-by-step exit sequence, the equity reality, and how to protect the business.
Conflict
4 min read
Cofounder Communication Patterns That Sink Startups
Contempt, criticism, defensiveness, and avoidance predict cofounder breakdown before the cap table ever does. Learn to spot the patterns and the antidotes.
Investors
4 min read
Cofounder Conflict Is a Portfolio Risk
Cofounder conflict sinks more startups than any product miss. A guide for investors on diligencing the founding relationship and protecting returns.
Partnership
5 min read
Cofounder Decision Making: Who Gets Final Say
Set clear decision rights before you need them. A framework for cofounders to decide who owns what, when the CEO breaks a tie, and what needs consensus.
Equity
4 min read
What Happens to Equity When a Cofounder Leaves
When a cofounder leaves, unvested shares usually revert to the company and vested shares stay theirs. Vesting and leaver terms decide the split.
Conflict
5 min read
When to Bring in a Cofounder Mediator or Coach
Bring in a cofounder mediator when your own conversations stop working. Here's how to tell mediator from coach from therapist, and when to call each.
Investors
5 min read
Cofounder Red Flags VCs Watch For in Diligence
The cofounder red flags investors flag in diligence — unclear equity, no vesting, undefined roles, unresolved conflict — and how to fix them before the round.
Equity
4 min read
Cofounder Vesting Schedules and Cliffs, Explained
A cofounder vesting schedule earns equity over time, not all at once. Here is the standard 4-year term, 1-year cliff, and why it protects the company.
Partnership
4 min read
The Cofounder Weekly Check-In: A Simple Cadence
A cofounder check-in is a protected weekly meeting to align on metrics, tensions, decisions, and capacity. Here is a simple agenda to run one.
Equity
5 min read
Dynamic Equity Split: The Slicing Pie Model
A dynamic equity split reallocates ownership as contributions land. Here's how the Slicing Pie model works, and when it fits your startup.
Equity
4 min read
Fair vs. Equal: The Cofounder Equity Split Debate
A fair cofounder equity split rarely means an equal one. Here's how to weigh contribution, risk, and role before you divide ownership.
Partnership
4 min read
Founder Operating Agreement: A Role Charter Template
A founder operating agreement is a role, decision, and cadence charter for how cofounders operate together. Here is the template and how to keep it current.
Conflict
4 min read
How to Have Hard Conversations With Your Cofounder
A step-by-step way to raise a cofounder difficult conversation: prep with facts, open direct, listen, and land a documented agreement.
Leadership
5 min read
How to Measure Team Dynamics Beyond Personality Tests
Personality tests describe how people are wired. To measure team dynamics, track how people actually work together: safety, clarity, conflict, and trust.
Leadership
5 min read
A Leadership Team Offsite Agenda That Drives Alignment
A timed leadership team offsite agenda built around one decision, real divergence, and 90-day commitments your team will actually keep.
Leadership
4 min read
How to Reduce Executive Team Conflict
Executive team conflict is not always the problem. Learn to separate healthy task conflict from destructive relationship conflict, and cut the tension.
Conflict
5 min read
9 Signs Your Cofounder Relationship Is Failing
The warning signs of a failing cofounder relationship: recycled arguments, false agreement, avoided conversations, contempt, and divergence you both stopped naming.
Leadership
5 min read
Team Alignment vs. Personality Assessments: What Works
Personality tests reveal who people are. Team alignment changes how they work together. Here is what each one measures, and which moves results.
Investors
4 min read
What Makes a Founding Team Investable
Investors back teams before products. Here are the traits that make a founding team investable: founder-market fit, complementary skills, resilience, and coachability.
Investors
5 min read
Why Startups Really Fail: The Cofounder Data
Most startups don't die from bad products. They die from people problems. The data on why startups fail, cofounder conflict, and founding-team risk.
Conflict
5 min read
Are You a Good Cofounder Fit? 8 Questions to Test Before You Commit
A cofounder compatibility test isn't a personality quiz. Test how you operate together across 8 dimensions—values, money, roles, conflict—before you commit.
Partnership
5 min read
Deadlock Between Two 50/50 Founders: The Tie-Breaker Playbook
A cofounder deadlock can freeze a 50/50 company overnight. Learn how to prevent it with clear decision rights and write a tie-breaker clause before you need it.
Equity
6 min read
Why Cofounder Equity Resentment Builds — and How to Prevent It
Cofounder equity resentment rarely starts with the number. It builds when a split stops matching contribution and is never revisited. Here's how to prevent it.
Conflict
6 min read
Cofounder Mediation vs. Litigation: When a Dispute Needs More Than a Conversation
A cofounder mediation map: the escalation ladder from a hard conversation to court, what each rung costs in money, time, and the partnership, and when to climb.
Equity
6 min read
Is a 50/50 Equity Split a Mistake? What the Data Says
Is a 50/50 equity split bad? The data on equal cofounder equity is mixed. The real risk isn't the ratio — it's an undiscussed split with no tie-breaker.
Partnership
5 min read
The Founder Relationship Health Check: A Quarterly Ritual
A quarterly founder relationship health check keeps your partnership current as the company grows. Here is a repeatable agenda cofounders can run together.
Leadership
6 min read
Your Leadership Team Looks Aligned. Here's How to Tell If It Isn't.
A leadership team not aligned rarely looks broken. Learn the quiet signs of false alignment and how to surface real agreement instead of polite nodding.
Conflict
5 min read
20 Questions to Ask a Potential Cofounder Before You Start
The questions to ask a potential cofounder before you start: 20 prompts spanning values, equity, roles, and exit that surface hidden assumptions early.
Conflict
6 min read
The 9 Real Reasons Cofounders Fight (and the Fix for Each)
The real reasons cofounders fight trace to unspoken assumptions about effort, roles, equity, and vision. Name each one and document the fix before you split.
Conflict
6 min read
When to Fire a Cofounder: A Founder's Decision Checklist
When to fire a cofounder is the hardest call a founder will make. This decision checklist helps you read the signs, try a reset first, and part ways cleanly.
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