THINKING – Sprint 16
Flourishing with co-founders, family and friends
The reason for this sprint
In the US, over half of all startups have more than one founder. On a global basis, over 75% of all startups involve a family member. Once a startup finds traction for their product, co-founder conflict is the biggest cause of failure.
Only 1 in 4 founding teams stay together for more than four years. Co-founder relationship building skills we discussed in sprints 8, 9 and 10 are essential for maximizing a startup’s chances for survival, let alone success.
When family members, friends and love interests are involved, these skills are even more important.
We describe how do use these skills to carefully structure and document the shared objectives and payoffs you agree to pursue before working together on a startup
Sprint exercises
This sprint relies heavily on the skills discussed in sprints 8,9 and 10 on Relationship Building.
Please review the materials and the exercises from those sprints. Then read or listen to the article “Flourishing with co-founders, family and friends”.
We challenge you to think about the following and write down your answers.
How well do you think you and your co-founders understand all your shared objectives and the respective payoffs? Where are they listed and written down?
Do you and your co-founders understand which shared objectives you are cooperating, competing or retreating on?
Have you set up any explicit shared objective boundaries between work and non-work?
Where and why are you and your co-founders reticent to honestly discuss shared objectives, payoffs, and being retreating or competitive?
Answer these same questions for any friends or family members you might work with.