Your company runs on one relationship more than any other: yours. Three and a half intensive days in the Bavarian Alps and five online sessions to get radically honest with each other, clear what slows you down, and build a partnership that can scale with your ambition.
You spend more time with your co-founder than with almost anyone else, under more pressure than most marriages ever face. You put serious work into strategy, product and funding. The partnership deserves the same.
Tension rarely starts with bad intentions. It starts with things never said: who carries more, what the equity split really means to each of you, how much of your life you are willing to give, what happens when one of you has a child, burns out or wants out. Unspoken, these turn into stories about each other's motives. Old patterns take over, and the partnership slowly loses its ground.
of high-potential start-ups fail because of conflict among the founders, according to the widely cited research of Harvard Business School professor Noam Wasserman, based on some 10,000 founders.
Noam Wasserman, The Founder's DilemmasAn honest look at the relationship your company runs on: who each of you is under pressure, what happens when your patterns collide, and how to turn that into a partnership that grows with the company. Whatever you have worked with before, you leave with a shared language.
We begin with what brought you together: the spark behind your company and the vision you share. Reconnecting with that fire reminds you of your shared foundation and gives you common ground and energy for everything that follows.
Who you are as a founder, before it's about the two of you.
The heart of the program: what happens when your patterns and needs meet, and how to turn that into strength.
Your partnership at the core of the company and everyone around it.
The work also shows what your practical agreements need to cover, from equity and roles to leaver rules. It also brings to light what you can rely on, what makes you strong together and what you want to keep building on. You leave with a clear list to settle together, and we are happy to support you along the way.
The days in the mountains kick things off. The online sessions turn insight into habits, in the middle of real company life. And you leave with something that lasts beyond the program: a circle of co-founders who know what you're going through.
An individual call with each co-founder and one with the team, so we know where you stand and what you hope for.
Arrive Tuesday evening, followed by three full days, finish Saturday at lunch, with Sunday free to land. Each day starts with movement and meditation. From Me to You & Me to We, ending with a map for your partnership: clarity, principles, routines and the support you want.
Monthly 2.5-hour group sessions anchored in your team's map. Go deeper, practise, and towards the end write your own co-founder manifesto.
Each team leaves with shared language, the agreements it needs and a network of fellow co-founder teams to call on long after the program ends.
Proven approaches such as the Leadership Circle Profile, IFS and NARM to understand the reflexes each of you brings under pressure, and how to work with them instead of against them. Somatic practice makes sure the change lands in the body, not only in the head.
Proven relational methods for business partners: structured dialogue, mirroring and live practice with your real situations.
To see the partnership within the whole system it belongs to, and what that system asks of each founder.
Teams work on real situations in front of the group and advise each other in peer case consulting. You learn as much from the other teams as from your own work.
Symbols, images and a shared circle of values, so the partnership you want becomes something you can see and step into.
Simple frameworks for honest conversations and conflict, such as nonviolent communication, the fight, flight, freeze patterns and simple body-based ways to stay grounded when things heat up. All of it works on a Monday morning.
Walks and time outside in the mountains, where the outside world supports inner change.
As we move from You & Me to We, we zoom out. Teams can constellate their partnership within its stakeholder system: the company and its purpose, customers, employees, investors, families, and anyone who helped found the company and left.
Constellations make visible what is hard to put into words: who has a good place and who doesn't, where giving and taking are out of balance, which hidden loyalties pull a founder away, and what the company needs from each of you. Members of the other teams act as representatives, so every team learns from every constellation.
Founding teams of two or three are welcome. You come as a team.
Small enough for depth, large enough that each team learns from the others. Many stay in touch as peers and sparring partners.
Pre-seed to scale-up. Whether things are going great or the partnership is feeling the strain.
No prior experience with coaching, therapy or personal development is needed. This is not crisis mediation, though; if you're in acute conflict, talk to us first.
We meet in Jens's home in Schliersee, Bavaria, a passive-energy-plus chalet with mountain views, a workshop space and a garden with a natural pond.
Schliersee is about an hour from Munich and Munich Airport by train. Mountain trails start at the door; the lakes Schliersee and Spitzingsee are close by. Home-cooked vegan and vegetarian meals.
Both of us are founder coaches trained in relational work. We work with founders, leaders and their teams.
Jens has coached founders, CEOs and government leaders in over 25 countries. He was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and co-dean and core faculty of its senior leadership programs. He spent part of his career in McKinsey's Silicon Valley office and was co-leader of its innovation practice.
He also knows the co-founder relationship from the inside: he has co-founded several ventures and is an active investor in start-ups.
Today, he works as a founder coach and therapist, and hosts intensive founder retreats and workshops at his chalet in Schliersee.
Susanne accompanies organisations, teams and individuals through change. After leading personnel development and change projects in large companies and advising on organisational change in a consultancy, she founded Stillhammer Consulting, where she works with leadership teams, founders and co-founder teams.
She brings a rare combination of business pragmatism and systemic depth. Her ability to create spaces where complexity can be held and difficult experiences explored opens up possibilities for connection, clarity and meaningful shifts.
Prices are per person, excluding VAT. Choose the tier that reflects your financial reality.
Profitable or well-capitalised ventures.
Earlier stage, limited or no external funding.
Very early, building from personal means. Fellows add €1,300 upon reaching their next financial milestone.
The retreat is planned for 16–20 November 2027, arriving Tuesday evening and finishing Saturday at lunch. We are collecting interest from co-founder teams now. If the date doesn't work for the group, we stay flexible.
Get in touch for an informal conversation. Tell us a little about your company and your founding team, and we will send you the next steps.