[WIP]

Cofounder Edition

(Cofounder Minigame)
Cover
For Co-Founders
Mini Game
Conversations that get to how you're
both doing, beyond the chaos.
15 mins
Round 1
01

Each cofounder's individual state before the partnership work starts.

Round 1
Rate Your Life
Rate each of these out of 10.
1 is lowest, 10 is highest.
1How healthy do you feel physically?
2How healthy do you feel mentally?
3How well have you been sleeping?
4How much fun are you having?
5How excited are you about your life?
One person gives their rating. Then it's the other's turn.
✎ Principles

Founder burnout is the most under-measured failure mode.

You can't read the partnership without first reading the person.

02

What's quietly taking up space in each cofounder's head right now.

Round 2
Brain Tabs
If your brain was Chrome, what 3 tabs are open right now?
Think about:
A decision I keep delaying Something at home that's quietly heavy Something I'm carrying that no one knows A worry I keep coming back to
Say your 3. The other asks one follow-up on any tab. Then switch.
✎ Principles

Invisible weight.

Cofounders carry mental load the other rarely fully tracks.

03

How well each cofounder sees what mattered to the other.

Round 3
Their Rose,
Their Thorn
Guess: their best moment of the last three months.
Guess: their hardest moment of the last three months.
Say your guess. They reveal theirs. Then switch.
✎ Principles

Recognition is one of four fault lines under most cofounder conflict.

The gap between guess and truth is the diagnostic.

04

The unspoken stuff. Across the last three months, right now, and what's coming.

Round 4
Rapid Fire
The last three months.
1One word to describe the last three months.
2A moment I was glad you were next to me.
3One thing we spent a lot of time on that, looking back, didn't need that much.
4One thing we barely spent time on that we should have prioritized more.
5One thing I decided you went along with but didn't fully agree with.
One of you answers all five. Then the other.
Right now.
1One thing on your plate you're dreading.
2One thing on your plate you're excited about.
The next three months.
31 to 10: how much do you think I know what you want from the next three months?
One of you answers all three. Then the other.
✎ Principles

Postponement is the most dangerous hidden sign.

Speed bypasses the filter that hides Power, Closeness, and Personal Trust tensions.

05

What each cofounder actually wants from the next quarter. Said out loud. Saved.

Last Round
Capsule:
90 Days
Each of you record your answer as a voice note.
Each of you record your answer as a voice note.
In the coming three months,
what's the one thing I'm most looking forward to,
and what's the one thing I see as the biggest challenge?
Code: 0301
How to record
✎ Principles

Assumed alignment is the most common form of misalignment.

The capsule pays off Round 4's synergy rating.

Save it as a memory
If either of you has an iPhone or iPad:
1Open the Seesaw Social app.
App link: seesaw.social
2Go to Activities. Select ‘Session Capsule.’
3Enter the code: 0301.
4Each of you record a voice note.
5Add a photo together.
(Optional)
6Done. Seesaw reopens it in 90 days.
Playing from different cities?
  • Save with your voice note.
  • Link your space with your cofounder.
  • They add theirs from their device.
Don't have an iPhone?
Save it on WhatsApp.
Open your cofounder's chat.
Each of you record a voice note finishing the sentence.
Set a calendar reminder for 90 days from now.
Open it when the reminder hits. Notice what changed. Notice what didn't.
Closer
And that's it.
Hopefully something here was worth saying out loud.
Next
Edition 02. In 90 days.
The things you don't notice day to day get obvious when you look back.
A Seesaw mini game. Built to repeat.
Research
More than half of co-founder
relationships end within four
years.
start
yr 1
yr 2
yr 3
yr 4
10%
55%
It's rarely a big fight that ends it.
It's all the small ones that piled up.

Noam Wasserman, author of The Founder's Dilemmas

the early signs?
Signs you're not on the same page anymore.
01

The same argument, again

You're fighting about something else. You just don't know it.

02

Pre-meeting dread

You feel the tension in your body before the conversation even starts.

03

Interrupting more often

You're not listening. You're just waiting to respond.

04

The conversation you keep postponing

You know talking about it will be uncomfortable, so you let it disappear. Spoiler: it doesn't. It just gets worse.

the hardest sign to catch

You explain their actions
to yourself.

Something happens that you find odd.

But instead of asking them,

you explain it for them, in your head.

You give them the benefit of the doubt.

You like them, so you make their actions make sense.

They never know any of this happened.

You do it again next week. And the week after.

Every time, you add another thing to the list.

They don't know there's a list.

Then one day, something small happens.

And you snap.

To them, it's about the small thing.

They don't know what's been piling up.

The fix

The fix isn't in the moment.
It's on the calendar.

Six years of research with 100+ founding teams point to the same intervention.

A regular sit-down. Just for the two of you.

Not for the company. For the relationship behind it.

A conscious conversation where small things get said before they pile up.

Not "are we on track." But "are we okay."

Research by Dr. Matthew Jones.

a game for co-founder catch-ups

For co-founders to stay on the same page through the chaos of building and pivoting together.

For Co-Founders
Mini Game
Conversations that get to how you're
both doing, beyond the chaos.
15 mins
Round 1

A 15-minute conversation between two co-founders. Once every quarter.

Check it out on our page @seesaw.social

the book that shaped this

If you're curious to read more,
the book goes deeper.

The Cofounder Effect by Dr. Matthew Jones

The Cofounder Effect

Dr. Matthew Jones

The clinical psychologist who founded the field of co-founder coaching.