Patent Attorney and Founder
Oftentimes, if two people are starting a business together, they have a pre-existing relationship; they may be close friends. I really put the relationship at the center of the planning and the advice. So, I’m certified in something called the conscious contracts method, which is, again, taking a relational lens and applying it to your operating agreement or founder co-founder agreement. Really asking them, “Hey, what are your shared mission, vision, values? What are you hoping to get out of this?” And also, “What is your conflict style? What’s going to happen if, down the road, the two of you are not seeing eye to eye on something? How are we going to work through that?” You can put things in their operating agreement and give them tools to help address that future possible conflict.