Co-founder differences can be a superpower of startups. But these differences can also lead to critical co-founder conflicts that persist and create problems, especially as your company expands and evolves.
Dr. Matthew Jones is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in working with co-founders to help manage critical conflicts that threaten their success.
He is the author of the book, “The Cofounder Effect: How to Diagnose, Fix, and Scale Healthy Communication for Startup Success.”
Matt has worked with hundreds of bootstrapped and VC-funded co-founder teams to help them repair and manage their relationships in the context of their growing business.
Matt knows how the magic of the co-founder relationship creates the “floor and the ceiling” of a startup’s culture and future growth.
When co-founder conflict becomes a recurring frustration for at least one of the founders, it’s a sign that the relationship needs attention. As Matt describes it:
“Co-founder differences can start off and be quite positive if we can manage that tension effectively. That’s the magic of co-founders, right?
It’s the complementary skills and ways of operating that allow you to land somewhere even more effective than you could have individually.
“But those same differences that give you that magic sauce also can be sources of friction, like an arthritic knee that just aches now and then, and sometimes gets worse and worse, right?
“That’s where the tensions really have to be managed. That’s why I advocate for making those differences as conscious and explicit as possible.”
Working through deeper relationship conflicts takes effort.
And it often takes outside help to enable both sides to create useful new perspectives, reconnect, and evolve.
In this Practical Founders Podcast interview, Matt offers useful perspectives on a wide range of co-founder relationship topics, including:
- Why co-founder alignment sets the floor and ceiling forthe entire company culture and employee performance.
- How most co-founder conflicts aren’t about surface issues but deeper psychological needs for recognition and power.
- Why research shows that companies founded by friends are more unstable than those started by strangers.
- The three communication languages of cofounders: operational (business), psychological (feelings), and archetypal (the vibe).
Check out this practical interview with Dr. Matthew Jones on the Practical Founders Podcast.
