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Week / Day 1 · Wed Aug 5 / Co-founder dating
Studio · taught

Co-founder dating

A team of 2 or 3 with complementary skills and a written 5-line contract.

Open this session's deck →
13:15
start
75m
duration
4
exercises
3
things you leave with
Welcome

Choosing who you build with is the biggest decision a founder makes, so we treat it like a craft, not luck. You will post your skills, speed-date the room with your thesis, and form a team around the strongest problems. Not just your friends: the people who sharpen your thinking.

You walk out with
✓A team picked on purpose
✓A role you own
✓A contract you will actually use
Why this session exists

Most startups die from co-founder conflict before they die from competition. A team picked deliberately, with a written contract, survives the mid-week dip that kills casual teams.

The arc, minute by minute
13:15
What makes founding teams work, and the friends-only trap
13:25
Skill and style cards posted: builder, designer, storyteller
13:35
Founder speed-dating: 6 rounds, 4 minutes, score one thing
14:00
The draft: sign under a problem on the wall; role coverage + one new person, scores break ties
14:15
The team contract: 5 lines, written, signed, stress-tested by Claude
Exercises
01
Speed-dating
Pitch your thesis in 4-minute rotations. Score each partner on one question only: did they sharpen it? These scores pick your team.
02
The draft
Sign your name under a problem on the wall, not next to a friend. Rules: two different role cards per team, at least one person you met today, scorecards break ties.
03
The team contract
Five written lines: roles, decision rule, disagreement rule, working hours, definition of done.
04
Claude stress-test
Feed your contract to Claude: it plays out three what-happens-when scenarios against it. Patch the holes now, not on Day 3.
prompt · give this to the room verbatim
Here is our 5-line team contract. Play out three realistic conflict scenarios for a student startup team this week (disagreement on scope, one member overloaded, deadline pressure at 4pm) and show where our contract breaks. Suggest one fix per hole.
Tools in play
Claude
Materials to prep
Skill/style cardsTeam contract sheets
The checkpoint · nothing counts unless it is live
Contract signed and posted on the wall. Team name chosen in 5 minutes, no bikeshedding.
The handoff · what the next session assumes
Leave withA team of 2 or 3 and a signed 5-line contract
DecidedWho is builder, whose laptop builds, designer and storyteller named
Bring nextThe whole team at the builder's laptop at 14:45 sharp
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