Phase 11 · Founders Support Programme · Build. Lead. Endure.
Co-Founder & Team Structure Advisory
More founder businesses fail because of people and structure than because of market or product. Getting the founding team right is the most commercially consequential decision a founder will ever make.
Co-Founder & Team Structure Advisory addresses the structural, relational, and governance dimensions of the founding team — the co-founder relationships, the equity and role clarity, the early hire decisions, and the organisational design choices that determine whether the founding unit becomes the foundation of a great company or the source of its most damaging conflicts. Whether a founder is considering bringing on a co-founder, navigating tensions in an existing co-founder relationship, making the first senior hires, or restructuring the team ahead of a funding round, this service provides the structured advisory support that prevents the most common and most costly founding team mistakes.
The Pain We Solve
You may recognise yourself in one of these.
Three audience scenarios · because the same service produces a different transformation depending on where you are in the business journey.
Scenario 1
The solo founder considering a co-founder partnership
The business has reached a stage where the founder needs a complementary partner — someone who brings the skills, the bandwidth, or the commercial relationships that the business needs for the next phase. But choosing a co-founder is one of the most consequential decisions a founder will ever make. The wrong choice — misaligned values, unclear role definition, unbalanced equity, insufficient prior relationship — can destroy the business more decisively than any market headwind. Most founders approach co-founder selection with less rigour than they would a senior hire.
Scenario 2
The founding team experiencing structural tension
The business started with good intent and genuine complementarity between founders. But as the business has grown, the relationship has developed friction: role boundaries are unclear, decision-making authority is contested, and the equity split feels misaligned with the actual contribution each founder is making. The conflict is not personal — it is structural. It was created by the absence of clear agreements, role definition, and governance at the founding stage, and it is now threatening both the business and the relationship.
Scenario 3
The founder making the first senior hires ahead of a funding round
The business is preparing to raise. The investor due diligence will assess the team as much as the commercial traction — and the current team has gaps. The founder knows the hires they need to make but is uncertain about the roles, the seniority, the sequencing, and the equity or compensation packages that will attract the right people. Getting this wrong — hiring in the wrong order, at the wrong level, with the wrong incentive structure — is a mistake that compounds in cost and difficulty as the business scales.
The Impact It Creates
The Moment You Will Feel the Difference.
Co-founder relationships are structured clearly — with defined roles, decision rights, equity frameworks, and governance agreements that prevent the ambiguity that generates future conflict
Founding team composition is optimised for the business's current needs and the next phase of growth — the right people in the right roles with the right incentives
Senior hire decisions are made with rigour — the right role, the right level, the right timing, and the right compensation structure to attract and retain the talent the business needs
The team structure withstands investor scrutiny — because it is designed as a commercial asset rather than assembled by default
What You Receive
The Specific Deliverables.
Tangible outputs · documented, dated, and yours to keep.
- Co-founder structure and governance review — a structured assessment of the current or proposed co-founder relationship, covering roles, equity, decision rights, and governance frameworks
- Founding team composition design — a structured analysis of the team the business needs for its next phase, including role priorities, sequencing, and capability gap assessment
- Co-founder or partner agreement framework — the structural and governance frameworks that define roles, responsibilities, decision authority, and conflict resolution mechanisms
- Senior hire advisory — support in defining the roles, levels, and compensation structures for the first senior hires, including interview frameworks and assessment criteria
- Team design review — a post-hire or post-restructure review to assess alignment between the intended structure and the actual dynamics emerging in the team
The Outcome
Where You Will Be on the Other Side.
After Co-Founder & Team Structure Advisory, the founding team is structured for commercial success — with clear roles, governance frameworks, and the organisational design that gives the business the human foundations to scale without the structural conflicts that destroy founder businesses.
Primary Focus
Designing the founding team and co-founder relationships with the structural clarity, governance frameworks, and role definition that prevent the people conflicts that derail founder businesses — creating the human foundation on which commercial ambition can be built.
KPI Measurement
- Co-founder relationship health score — structured quarterly assessment of role clarity, decision-making alignment, and relationship quality
- Time to senior hire completion — from role definition to accepted offer, tracked against market benchmarks
- Team structure investor assessment — qualitative investor feedback on team composition and governance in funding conversations
- Founding team retention rate — percentage of founding team members retained at 12 and 24 months post-advisory
Investment & ROI
Pricing Engineered Around the Value You Create.
Every engagement is sized against the value we believe we can create with you · the fee is always a fraction of the outcome. Four tiers · so the investment matches your stage of business.
Tier 1
Foundations
£5,000 – £15,000
Right for
Pre-startup, startup, and micro-business founders ready to build on evidence rather than instinct.
Typical Value Created
Bespoke
Engagement
4 – 8 weeks
Target Return
5 – 10× ROI
within 12 – 18 months
Tier 2
Acceleration
£15,000 – £50,000
Right for
Growing SMEs and established small businesses ready to scale a working model into the next revenue band.
Typical Value Created
Bespoke
Engagement
8 – 16 weeks
Target Return
5 – 10× ROI
within 12 – 18 months
Tier 3
Transformation
£50,000 – £250,000
Right for
Medium enterprises and scale-stage businesses ready to commit to a multi-quarter, organisation-wide shift.
Typical Value Created
Bespoke
Engagement
3 – 9 months
Target Return
5 – 10× ROI
within 12 – 18 months
Tier 4
Enterprise
£250,000 – £2M+
Right for
Large enterprises, global operators, and complex organisations ready for a multi-year strategic partnership.
Typical Value Created
Bespoke
Engagement
12 months and onward
Target Return
5 – 10× ROI
within 12 – 18 months
Why We Price This Way
Every engagement is sized around the value we believe we can create with you. The fee is always a fraction of the outcome · typically 10 – 20% of the expected first-year return.
This is how we make sure pricing aligns with results. The conversation is never “what does this cost?” · it is always “what is this worth to your business?” We answer that together in the first call, transparently, and decide the right tier from there.
If we cannot articulate a credible 5–10× return for your specific situation, we will tell you in the first call. That honesty is part of why our clients trust us with the work that matters most.
Why This Conversation Matters
“The best businesses are built by the best teams — and the best teams are designed, not assembled by accident. Co-Founder & Team Structure Advisory ensures that the people dimension of your business is engineered with the same rigour as the commercial dimension — because in the end, people are the business.”
A 90-minute structured strategy session · produces a usable roadmap whether you engage further or not.
More in Phase 11