scenario of the week · week of 28 September 2026
A new co-founder scenario every Monday
One card a week, built from the situations that actually end founding partnerships. Answer it separately from your co-founder, then compare. Download it sized for a LinkedIn post or an Instagram story and put it in front of your own founders.
repair
The thing you said in the meeting
You cut your co-founder off in front of the team and the room went quiet. It's now four hours later and neither of you has mentioned it.
- ARaise it tonight
- BWait and see if it matters
Why this one is worth an argument
The research is unusually blunt here: it's not conflict that predicts a break-up, it's whether repair attempts get made and accepted.
What does a real apology from each of you sound like? Do you both recognise the other's version?
Share this week's card
The rest of the deck
Every card that has run, so you can pull one out whenever you need it.
power
The deadlocked hire
You have one senior hire left in the budget. You want the expensive, obviously brilliant one. Your co-founder wants the cheaper one who has done exactly this job before. Neither of you is moving after an hour.
money
Two months of runway
There is enough cash for two more months of everyone's salary, or four months if the two of you stop paying yourselves. One of you has savings. The other has rent and a dependant.
integrity
The number in the deck
Your best month was 41 paying customers. Two churned on the last day. The investor deck says 40+ and the round closes this week.
candour
The co-founder who went quiet
Your co-founder has shipped almost nothing for three weeks. They look exhausted. The board call is on Thursday and you'd have to cover for them.
loyalty
Firing the first believer
Employee number two is a friend who joined when there was nothing. They are now clearly the weakest person on the team, and everyone knows it.
money
The split you agreed in a café
You split 50/50 eight months ago. Since then one of you has worked full time and the other has kept a contract job two days a week.
commitment
The offer for one of you
An acquirer wants the product and one founder. The other founder gets a small payout and no role. It's real money for a company that is 30 months from anything comparable.
integrity
The customer who pays everything
One customer is 60% of revenue. They want a data-handling exception you told the market you'd never make. Losing them means losing a hire.
power
The profile that names one of you
A major publication runs a flattering piece. It calls one of you 'the founder' and mentions the other in passing, twice, misspelled.
power
The investor who picks a favourite
Your lead investor starts texting one founder directly about the other's performance, and asks that it stay between them.
commitment
Different definitions of full time
One of you works six long days. The other works four focused ones and is genuinely more productive per hour. Neither has said anything for two months.
trust
The shared tin
Each founder privately puts any amount from their own money into a shared pot. Whatever goes in is doubled and split equally, no matter who contributed.