I mostly work with solo execs but in recent years working with pairs has become more common. It’s tricky but not in a couples counseling way. More like trying to act as an active stabilizing element by sparring with both, individually and together. It’s 4x as hard as a 1:1.
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An interesting part of the challenge is respecting the 1:1 confidences but also letting the 3 1:1 relationship data inform the three-way chats, and getting them to work better together while resisting being drawn into referee/couples-counselor mode.
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3 is too much I think. Though siblings (eg Warner brothers) sometimes seem to pull it off. You’re going to get an idiosyncratic pattern of divided responsibilities
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Replying to @vgr
any hunch against troika, or pair and troika similar reasoning?
(troika w/o a forced 3-way responsibility split)
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I think the checklist from the Power of 2 book is kinda bad. It doesn’t matter if you get score A+ on those 8 “relationship house-keeping” things if the core creative tension is weak sauce.
Otoh if the core tension is electric, a lot of those 8 things can be C’s and D’s
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Yeah this one’s also on my list to read. If I ever write a book about this, just to be annoying I’ll call it “Original Famous Power of Two”
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I’ve basically never had a creative partner. Would be interesting 🤔
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Seriously though, if you find a good creative partner, grab on… especially in startup world. A true co-founder is like 10x increase in survival odds. I rarely take on super-early stage startup clients, and my most common reason for declining is “you don’t have a cofounder”
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The opposite can be said that an incompatible co-founder can decrease the chances of success by 10x, and compatibility is less likely to find.
Been searching for two years and it has only slowed down launching something I have clarity on.
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True. But from a founder’s perspective who gets fewer shots at figuring things out I need a better strategy.
Current theory is it’s about when than if—bringing on cofounder(s) only after the significant aspects of the vision is documented,… execution partner > creative partner
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Not necessarily. Whenever you zoom into any part of an execution you’ll encounter creative problems to solve. It’s just scoped more crisply and cofounders can tag team at each level.
My challenge as a solo-founder is context switching between creative vs execution modes.
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