Coaching Process
How cofounder coaching works
Cofounder coaching is the professional practice of working directly with founders together as a team to address the psychological and operational dynamics shaping their partnership, culture, and trajectory.
It is a relational and systemic practice in which the founding relationship, rather than any individual founder, constitutes the primary unit of intervention.
In practice, the relationship is the client. Two individually strong founders can still have a working relationship that doesn't function, and that is what this work is built to change.
How an engagement works
1. A first conversation.
Usually one founder reaches out first. Dr. Jones meets with whoever comes, together or separately, to understand what's happening, what you've already tried and your timeline.
2. A working session together.
An hour with all founders. Dr. Jones coaches on a real issue so you can experience the work, then you decide together whether and how to proceed.
3. The Cofounder Satisfaction Index.
Each founder completes the CSI confidentially. Dr. Jones prepares an anonymized report showing where you see the partnership the same way and where you see it differently. Some teams add a Founding Team 360. The CSI shows how you see each other. The 360 shows how your company sees you.
4. Individual onboarding.
A one-on-one session with each founder, so each person can speak candidly and build trust before the team work begins.
5. The first team session.
You review the CSI results together, agree on confidentiality and norms, and set shared goals for the engagement.
6. Ongoing team sessions.
You decide the frequency together: several times a week when things are acute, monthly when you're maintaining. There is no fixed curriculum; each session works on what matters most, toward the goals you set. Practice between sessions is optional, and Dr. Jones is available between sessions. Engagements run month to month, reviewed as you go, so the work keeps earning its place.
What happens in sessions
Sessions draw on a toolkit Dr. Matthew Jones developed over six years of work with founding teams and wrote out in The Cofounder Effect.
The work follows your goals rather than a script, but every engagement moves through the three phases of the Cofounder Conflict Navigation System™.
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The Cofounder Satisfaction Index (CSI). A measure of relationship health taken at the start and close of every engagement. It shows where founders see the partnership the same way and where they diverge.
The Three Languages Model. Founders communicate in three languages at once: Operational (tasks, metrics, strategy), Psychological (emotions, needs, feedback) and Archetypal (unspoken roles, power and "vibes"). Problems have to be addressed in the language where they actually live.
The Cofounder Conflict Matrix. A map of how conflict shows up, personal or professional and direct or indirect, with company culture as the circle around it. It shows how misalignment in one area ripples through the whole company.
Hidden patterns. The relational cycles that keep founders stuck, such as one founder pushing for resolution while the other withdraws, and the unspoken working agreements beneath the partnership that need renegotiating as people and companies change.
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The Conflict Container. An agreed time, place, set of boundaries and intention that makes a charged conversation safe to have.
Reflective Dialogue. One founder shares while the other mirrors and validates, then they switch. It slows reactivity and helps each person feel heard before anyone tries to solve anything.
Coauthoring. Once understanding is built, founders create shared meaning and new agreements together.
Getting unstuck. Naming the dynamic and treating the pattern, not the partner, as the shared problem.
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Repair. Rebuilding connection after a rupture, through direct repair (acknowledgment, apology, empathy) and through shared positive experience.
The Sync / Date System. Two rituals: operational syncs for alignment, and reflective "cofounder dates" for the relationship itself.
The Partnership Term Sheet. A living, co-created document that makes the partnership's expectations, values, norms and repair strategies explicit.
The foundation behind the method
The approach adapts robust relationship research for founding teams: the Gottman Method, Emotion-Focused Therapy, Imago Relationship Therapy, and Tavistock and object-relations thinking about group dynamics. It combines that research with six years of seeing what actually works with 100+ founding teams.
Starting on your own: The Cofounder Conflict Navigation System™
The Cofounder Conflict Navigation System™ is the method behind every engagement. In The Cofounder Effect, Dr. Matthew Jones wrote it out step by step, so founding teams can start on their own. In coaching, he applies it live, alongside the diagnostic work, tailored to your partnership.