Co-Founder Conflict Resolution · San Francisco & Telehealth
Therapy for co-founders navigating conflict, broken trust, communication breakdown, and the hard decisions that come with building together. In-person in San Francisco and via telehealth across California.
Why This Matters
Harvard Business School researcher Noam Wasserman estimated that approximately 65% of startup failures involve co-founder conflict. Not bad markets. Not running out of money. The people who started the company together can no longer work together.
And yet almost no one talks about it. Founders pour everything into product, fundraising, and hiring. The relationship between the people at the top gets neglected until there's a crisis. By then, communication has broken down, resentment has built up, and trust is gone.
The earlier you address it, the more options you have. This work is about getting ahead of the breaking point, or finding your way back from it.
Is This You?
You can't have a direct conversation without it escalating. Topics that used to feel manageable now feel loaded.
You're avoiding conversations you know need to happen. Decisions are getting delayed because neither of you wants to open that door.
Who owns what isn't clear anymore. Overlap is creating friction. Someone feels sidelined or overwhelmed.
Your visions for the business have diverged. One of you wants to raise, the other wants to stay lean. One wants to sell, the other wants to build for decades.
Something happened, or a pattern emerged, that made it hard to trust your co-founder the way you used to. You're second-guessing decisions and motives.
You're starting to wonder if splitting up would be easier. You don't want to destroy what you've built, but you can't keep going like this.
"Co-founder conflict affects communication, trust, and decision-making across the entire company. This is structured support for startup teams navigating high-pressure working relationships."Ana Zedginidze, LPCC
The Work
This is not mediation in the traditional legal sense. It's therapy, specifically designed for two or more people in a high-stakes founding partnership. The goal isn't to keep the peace. The goal is to help you both think clearly and make decisions that are right for the company and for yourselves.
Sessions are held together. Sometimes one or both partners may benefit from individual sessions alongside the joint work. The pace depends on what's happening and how urgent the situation is.
The work is direct. You'll be challenged. You'll also be supported. The aim is not to hand you communication scripts, but to help you understand what's actually driving the conflict and whether it's workable.
A 15-minute call to understand what's happening and whether this work is the right fit. No pressure, no intake forms.
Both co-founders join. We map out the conflict, identify the core issues, and establish what you're each hoping to get out of this.
We work through the specific tensions: trust, communication, equity, roles, vision. At a pace that fits the urgency of your situation.
Whether that means repairing the partnership, restructuring it, or making a clean decision to go separate ways, you leave with clarity.
What We Work On
Every founding partnership is different. The specific issues vary, but they tend to cluster around a few core tensions.
One founder feels their contribution isn't reflected in the cap table. Conversations about money have become personal and painful.
Unclear ownership creates duplication and resentment. Who has final say on product, hiring, or fundraising? It's not clear, and it's causing friction.
You started with the same vision. Somewhere along the way, your ideas about where the company should go diverged. Now every major decision is contested.
Feedback doesn't land well. Conversations escalate or shut down. One person over-communicates, the other goes quiet. The pattern has become the problem.
Something happened. A decision made without the other. A hire that shouldn't have been made. The rupture is real and needs to be addressed directly.
One of you may be leaving, or needs to. How that happens matters enormously for the company, the cap table, and both people involved.
Why Therapy and Not Mediation
Business mediators and attorneys focus on negotiating outcomes. They're useful when you're drawing up agreements or formalizing a separation. But they don't address what's actually driving the conflict: the underlying dynamics, the emotional patterns, the unspoken resentments that make it impossible to negotiate in good faith.
Executive coaches and advisors can offer perspective. But they're not equipped to work with the relational and psychological dimensions of a broken partnership. And founders often feel they have to perform competence for coaches in a way they don't with a therapist.
Therapy provides a structured, confidential space where both people can be honest about what's actually happening. It addresses the root causes rather than just the surface-level disputes. It's the difference between managing a conflict and actually resolving it.
Many founders end up needing all three: therapy to address the underlying dynamic, then a mediator or attorney if there are legal or equity decisions to formalize. Starting with therapy often makes those later conversations go better.
Common Questions
Yes. This work requires both (or all) co-founders to participate. If your co-founder is not willing to engage, individual therapy can still be a valuable way to process the situation and prepare for difficult conversations.
That's actually one of the most common reasons founders come in. The work helps you figure out whether the partnership is salvageable and, if not, how to separate in a way that's fair and doesn't destroy the company.
Yes. Everything discussed in sessions is confidential and protected by standard therapeutic privilege. Nothing is shared with investors, boards, or anyone outside the room without your explicit consent.
It depends on the severity of the conflict and what you're trying to achieve. Some partnerships need more support and frequent meeting and others need more spread out sessions over time. We will meet and discuss what is going on and create a plan on how often we need to meet. This is collaborative approach and will be based on your current situation.
Yes. Telehealth sessions are available to anyone in California, and both co-founders can join from different locations. I am also licensed in Minnesota and New York.
Co-founder conflict resolution sessions are $475 per one-hour session. I am a private pay therapist. Many clients use out-of-network benefits or FSA/HSA funds to offset costs.
Currently Accepting New Clients
Start with a free 15-minute call. No commitment, no intake forms. Just a conversation.
Book a Free Consultation