What do you think about "Couple's Therapy" for co-founders?

That's an excellent idea. It's something we don't preach enough! I don't think there's a perfect co-founder relationship so the demand is there. It'll be fun to figure out the exact use case from the interviews!

Hi! I think it should not be just for co-founders but also for the management team. Also I would start with using Socrates dialogue method. I have been finding that useful and saves a lot of time and gets to the point quite fast. :)

Interesting! It's definitely viable when you consider a company and marriage crossover a lot, co-founders like partners deal with being around each other a lot, conflicting views on the future, financial stress etc

I had a similar need a couple of years ago and this has worked well for us: Every Thursday we sat down in the morning for 2~3h out of the office (breakfast time was our best option at the time) and we talked about everything. Work-related, personal stuff, where we saw ourselves 10y from now, what are our political priorities, where we would travel to on our holidays, etc. Bonding with my partner helped a lot to understand why some decisions were being made. I say that because I knew that they were planning to be away for two weeks 5 months from now and they needed to speed up the delivery of a certain feature on the product. My point is, try to have a weekly, long conversation, with no previously synched agenda first. If that doesn't work, try couple's therapy.

I never heard of this but it's such a brilliant idea 😆but not every couple needs a therapy. I would guess that it's only applicable in case of some sort of conflict. At my company the co-founders are an actual married couple in real life. They are a good match and they openly and timely share feedback with each other so they never needed something like this ;)

Sounds like a plan :D

It sounds extreme! ;) We would need more therapy in general

I did this for hundreds of cofounder pairings for nearly 4 years while working at Entrepreneur First, and continue doing so privately. It's transformative - best book to read on the topic: Fierce Conversations. Also a great article by Esther Perel on the First Round blog: https://firstround.com/review/ho... If anyone wants to chat more about it, I'm @zefi on twitter.

Hi everyone! I am a Social Psychologist of Entrepreneurship with a PhD from Aston Business School, UK. I am not sure about "Couple's Therapy" for co-founders, but I can definitely recommend my book entitled 'The Entrepreneur’s Identity Standard: What entrepreneurs think about themselves and how it influences their entrepreneurial actions.' My book solves the psychological problem of how tech startup entrepreneurs deal with strategic decision-making processes in their ventures based on how they see themselves.

I had to do a double-take on this question because I thought it was on my Slack, not PH. My co-founder and I are building a modern couples therapy brand. We just finished fundraising and one of the interesting themes was how many investors asked about this (e.g., "would you do something like this for our portfolio company founders?"). We're super biased - we believe that everyone should go to couples therapy proactively and early. The underlying reason most couples (and founders) break up is that they let things fester. A small scratch becomes a gaping wound. Only way to solve this is to get on top of it early and ongoing. I think the best solution for founders in particular is some mix of intense onboarding experience to set expectations, ongoing quick check-ins to identify issues, and occasional deep dives with a third party to prevent those issues from snowballing.

I think this would be an amazing idea. I mean even without a problem, I think it would be a good idea for co-founders to talk with therapists, individually or separately. I mean, with the immense pressure of building a startup, it sure helps to have someone to unload to and help make sense with your thoughts

Never heard of it before, but as long we are having more startups and even more co-founders, it'll become a necessity. Not a chance YCombinator took a deeper look on the subject ✌️

I'm so glad this is getting talked about. Dr. Karen Bridbord does this through Founders Foundry (https://thefoundersfoundry.com/). As a Certified Gottman Therapist, she applies Gottman Method Couples Therapy to workplace relationships.

I think it's a great idea! A safe environment with a professional who's not biased. Also, for non co-founders such as married couples, I think the introduction of either a micro dose of Ketamine or a micro dose of ecstasy to bring out full emotions without holding anything back.

We provide (pay for) therapy and Co-founder therapy to all of our founders through www.atlasq.com. One of the core tenants of our firm is that the people behind the businesses are the real asset we're backing and so want to invest in their success as people and leaders. One of the things we've found is that, quantitatively, the top reasons for startup failure can all be traced back to the leadership team and many of those problems are related to mental and physical well-being. Its hard to be an A++ leader, maintain your energy and maintain your creativity when you are personally struggling.

I think that is an excellent idea...like any relationship, a partnership is never easy and it takes experience to know when to give and take.

I think this would be beneficial if both founders are open to it! I've heard of athletes (ice dancer pairs, for example), going into couple's therapy to improve their communication and team work. If you are working that closely with someone towards a common goal and spend a lot of time together, I see why not.

just did it... super helpful... DM me if you'd like a referral