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The pandemic encourages partner therapy

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They were before the co-founders were friends Kris Chaisanguanthum and Ryan Damm. Then in 2016 they founded Visby, a holographic imaging company. “You talk about doing business with someone you work with, but it’s not as intense as starting a business with your friends,” says Chaisanguanthum. “It’s like having a baby.”

Chaisanguanthum, who already had a baby, was not ready for the commitment made. He and Damm had trouble navigating decisions when they disagreed. After a difficult day, Damm liked it; Chaisanguanthum preferred to be left alone. After a few years, hurt feelings intensified to make their working relationships unsustainable. Chaisanguanthum was remembered an article She read about co-founders who go to therapy, like confused couples. “I remember what I thought was the biggest thing in Silicon Valley,” he says. What did they have to lose? They both made an appointment.

Co-founder therapy in Silicon Valley is a long tradition of self-improvement, along with meditation reflection and periodic fasting. But it quickly became prevalent after the stressful pandemic, which prompted more creators to attend therapy sessions.

Laura Kasper, a San Francisco psychologist, noticed significant growth in co-founder clients during the pandemic, when external stressors made the initial life even more intense. “The majority was in crisis,” he says. Communication problems were exacerbated when conversations were limited to email and Zoom. Power struggles, one of the most common problems among founding groups, intensified attacks on new business decisions, whether pivoted or not.

Reid Hoffman compare doing a startup “when throwing off the cliff and assembling an airplane”. Elon Musk compared “eating a glassBut many creators still don’t underestimate the challenges of working with another person day in and day out, often with a kind of intimacy reserved for weddings. Noam Wasserman, who spoke to thousands of creators while writing the 2012 book The dilemma of the creator, it was then estimated that 65 percent of startups fail due to co-founder conflict.

These conflicts were exacerbated by last year’s shutdowns. “If there was anger and resentment that wasn’t being addressed, that was starting to show more intensely,” says psychologist Matthew Jones and co-founder of the Cofounder Clarity Coaching Method. “I saw several collaborations, in different situations, that might last longer.” A lot pandemic violations, Says Jones, that the pandemic did not cause to the extent that conflicts between co-founders surface existing ones. Colleagues generally feel less than couples about their feelings, these tensions pushed many overwhelmed clients into their virtual office.

Jones charges a monthly fee of $ 2,000 to help his creative clients “take advantage of self-awareness” when making decisions. Although the job differs from executive training or couple therapy, it emphasizes building trust and communication. “Most business-related disagreements actually arise from unresolved emotional difficulties,” he says. “I teach the art of navigating conflict in a way that helps co-founders slow down and listen to each other as they listen and understand each other.”

It may feel a little woo-woo, but some swear by it. One of the early founders told me that the simple exercises, repeating what his creator had said before he responded, probably saved his business relationship. “If you think about the launch culture, it’s better at speed,” he said. “That gets deliberately slowed down.” They were just as helpful as his sessions, he wasn’t sure if the early community would see these practices well. He and his creator spoke to me on condition of anonymity because they are raising the B series and do not want to alienate investors. “Going to therapy,” the founder told me, “suggests there’s a problem.”

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