Business Partners and Co-Founders: The Good, the Bad, the Weird

Business partnerships can be a force multiplier or a slow-moving failure mode. This session is a facilitated conversation for co-founders and partners (and those exploring a partnership) seeking practical tools to build a better working relationship. If you are in a partnership that feels great, messy, or somewhere in between, come compare notes with other partners and co-founders in the room.

Together, we will surface the real issues that make or break partnerships, including expectations, decision-making, conflict patterns and communication breakdowns. Bring your scenarios, questions, and lessons learned. The goal is to leave with clearer language, healthier defaults, and a few practical tools you can apply immediately.

Who this is for:

• Co-founders and business partners, past, present, and future.
• Entrepreneurs considering a partnership, currently in one, or recovering from a hard one.
• Anyone building a company with a friend, family member, or long-time collaborator.

What you will take away:

• Tools for clarifying roles, expectations, and decision-making before conflict escalates
• Common partnership pitfalls, and early warning signs to watch for
• Practical ways to have hard conversations without triggering defensiveness or shutdown
• Prompts for separating “business relationship” issues from “personal relationship” issues
• Ideas for repair when trust has been dented, and how to prevent repeat patterns

Format:

Facilitated discussion with prompts, short frameworks, and group sharing. We will also pull insights from participants’ real scenarios (time-boxed).

Note: This is not legal advice. We will focus on partnership process, communication, and practical decision-making tools, not legal partnership agreements.

About the hosts:

Richard Chandler, “The Business Partners Counselor,” is a long-time business partnership counselor and executive coach. Grant Chandler is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and consultant focused on building clear, repeatable ways of working. They are also a father-son business partnership, and have helped many partners align and stay effective under real-world constraints.

• All levels
• Development
• Startups
• Soft Skills