Tapestry is an investment in your co-founder partnership
Tapestry is a template and a ritual that unites co-founders. It’s a framework and process that leads to a stronger and healthier partnership. By answering a series of questions separately, then bringing them together you’ll emerge with a personal manual and shared language for working better, together. The template can be self guided, or coach guided - it's entirely up to you. The investment of time and energy can payoff tomorrow or in 5 years. You get out of the Tapestry exercise what you put into it.
Who is Tapestry for? This exercise is for co-founders that are interested in investing in their working partnership. Most likely you are ready to embark on the journey together, and decided to co-found something.
Discover who your co-founder really is
You know you, but do you know your partner?
Define individual and shared principles
What ideals and fundamental truths drive you, your partner, and the relationship?
Set clear expectations for your roles, relationship and company
What happens now, what happens next, and what happens in the Inc.
Create clear working agreements
Determine how you want to work together to avoid chaos later.
Determine processes for tough conversations and decisions
How to disagree without being disagreeable.
Memorialize the partnership
Codify the relationship in a document that evolves with the relationship.
Delivered as a Template
This template is a series of questions you and your partner go through separately, then bring together.This becomes a living document bringing together people, ideas, and intentions. The Tapestry exercise is for you, your employees, and even board members and advisors. It can act as an operating manual for the founders, and anyone else who reads it.
Do it in your own time
- Template for you and your co-founder
- Detailed overview of how to complete the process
- Step by step set of questions for you and your co-founder
Delivered as a Service
Going through this process alone can be daunting. We have guided teams through numerous challenges, hard discussions and breakthroughs. Doing so with a coach is always a beneficial approach. Completing the Tapestry exercise with a coach means going deeper and investing the time required to get on the same page with your partner.
We coach 1:1 with each co-founder to go through the Tapestry program, then as a team weaving the story together.
Why should you invest in this process?
Threading the needle on creating a billion dollar company is difficult. 65% of startups fail due to co-founder conflict*. That’s not a typo.
This is one of the most important partnerships you’ll ever enter into. Your lives will be deeply intertwined for possibly the next decade or more. Conflict is inevitable, but broken relationships are not.
Partnerships formed with greater alignment and intention are healthier and stronger. Let Tapestry help you solidify your partnership and provide you with the tools to make it a success.
*Noam Wasserman
Unlocking our potential
Steve and Eric have wanted to work together and collaborate on something for a long time and Tapestry is a great way to weave together our beliefs and goals - helping founders. We hope you benefit from our partnership, and if you decide to work with us we would be honored to serve you.
Eric Friedman
Eric is an executive coach and Fractional COO for startups. He works with those who are “building the machine” inside organizations. His mission is to be the best advisor through coaching, operating, and investing in great startup teams. You can learn more about him at ericgfriedman.com.
Steve Schlafman
Steve is a certified professional coach and angel investor. Over the past decade, he has coached, advised and invested in more than 60 founders in just about every sector and stage. Steve’s mission is to help the creators of tomorrow realize their full potential as leaders and humans. You can learn more about him at schlaf.me.
Who has invested in their partnership as founders?
Going through this exercise helped me internalize certain aspects of my working style which in turn supported a healthy partnership with my co-founder that I found myself going back to time and time again. I now view it as an essential and early part of forming successful working relationships.
CTO & Co-Founder of Lever Health
The Tapestry framework was instrumental to the founder relationship at Lever Health. It allowed us to align on each of our roles, set expectations of ourselves, each other and hold each other accountable. It has also helped significantly in understanding how to engage and interact with each other day to day, especially as we have faced challenges.
CEO & Co-Founder of Lever Health
Steve has helped me navigate all kinds of challenges from evaluating a potential cofounder to closing a seed round during the pandemic! Unlike investors, friends, family or advisors, Steve is fully focused on your growth and wellbeing which has led me to have many 'aha' moments.
CEO of Get Base
What inspired Tapestry?
Tapestry was born out of the need to have a better relationship with teams. We have assembled this work through coaching co-founders, investing the time ourselves with partners, and compiling all the great sources we have found helpful.