Build the
co-founder relationship that is carrying the business
For co-founders and business partners who want to lead with more clarity, resilience, and self-awareness.
I love helping people work together, whether that's a family, a couple, or a co-founder partnership.
About 20 years ago, someone referred me my first pair of co-founders.
I haven't just been a therapist my whole career. Before I trained as a clinician, I spent years in tech sales. Since then I've co-founded a psychotherapy clinic, a psychotherapy magazine, and a nonprofit that grew to 10,000 volunteers across 20 countries. I've had co-founders of my own, and I've sat on the other side of the table in co-founder coaching myself. It helped.
What we might work on
Shared direction, individual ambition, risk tolerance, and definitions of success
Roles, decision authority, workload, expectations, recognition, and accountability
Core values and how they guide choices when there is no perfect answer
Complementary strengths, and how strengths turn rigid under pressure
Formal and informal power: expertise, investor access, financial freedom, the ability to leave
Conflict habits, hidden meanings, accountability, and repair
We also pay attention to what's already working. The goal isn't to hunt for pathology. It's to make your strengths more available and your pressure points more discussable.
What I add
This isn't a set curriculum of concepts. I'm a clinician who has spent 23 years learning to work at the roots of relationship dynamics.
Most co-founder work draws on systems thinking, attachment, and parts work. Mine does too.
What I add: nervous system awareness, power dynamics, and attention to what operational stage your company is actually in.
Here's why that matters. Most conflict isn't really about the disagreement on the table. It's a prediction your nervous system is running, one built not just by your parents but by the culture and systems you've moved through. When a co-founder pushes back, goes quiet, or delays, an old prediction can fire before either of you knows what happened. I help you catch that in real time, not just talk about it after the fact.
When this work may be useful
The relationship is basically strong and you want to invest in it preventively
Growth, funding, role changes, or a major transition is changing the partnership
The same disagreement keeps returning under different topics
One person feels overburdened, bypassed, unrecognized, or unable to influence decisions
Conflict has become avoidant, explosive, overly logical, personalized, or hard to repair
Trust has been damaged and you want to know if repair is possible
The dynamic between you is starting to affect your team, your family, or others around you
How the work is structured
Most engagements begin with some assessment work before we bring the co-founders together.
Each person completes the Co-Founder Relationship Assessment independently, along with any brief written questions specific to the partnership or organization. I then meet with each co-founder individually before our first joint session.
From there, we agree on a small series of joint meetings focused on understanding the cycle you get caught in, strengthening communication and repair, and creating practical working agreements.
I structure this as a focused, contained engagement rather than open-ended coaching. The fee is set in advance based on the agreed scope and includes the assessment process, preparation, individual and joint meetings, and any between-session exercises or materials.
Confidentiality and organizational sponsorship
When an organization, foundation, board, or investor is paying for the work, we clarify the confidentiality agreement before anyone begins.
Payment does not automatically give the sponsoring organization access to assessment responses, individual disclosures, or the content of our meetings. We agree in writing on who is participating, what information remains private, and what, if anything, may be communicated back to the sponsor.
If some form of reporting is requested, such as confirmation of participation, broad themes, or general recommendations, everyone will know and agree to that arrangement in advance.
We also establish a clear policy for how information shared during individual meetings will be handled within the joint process. Confidentiality has legal and safety limits, which will be explained in the written coaching agreement.
Scope of the work
Co-founder relationship coaching doesn't replace legal, financial, governance, workplace, or safety advice. I'm not a mediator and I don't rule on ownership, valuation, or misconduct.
If your situation calls for formal advice, investigation, mediation, or protection, please seek that independently. This work can complement those processes. It shouldn't replace them.