8 years working together, 5 companies co-founded since 2017...
And still friends! Here's our secret:
With Fabien, we've pretty much been through everything possible over the years.
Here's 5 things we do to keep our co-founder relationship strong:
1. Weekly retro, every Friday
We share positives, negatives, and neutral points.
It can be business, personal, or direct feedback to each other.
We openly share wins and fails without judgment (even the stupid mistakes).
The goal is simple: strengthen alignment between us and keep small issues from becoming big ones.
2. IRL founders meetups, every 1–2 months
We pick activities (karting, gym, running) to spend time together.
Those meetups also allow us to go deeper on personal topics and realign on long-term personal and business goals.
These conversations are always better in person.
3. Quarterly planning
We review all feedback collected from customer support to plan the product roadmap.
We define growth initiatives, forecast revenue, and set low/ok/high goals so we can measure how we perform against expectations.
4. Monday kickoff
We review and update the weekly roadmap based on priorities.
That way, we both know exactly what's on each other's plate and avoid stepping on each other's toes.
5. Clear ownership of responsibilities
We're both software engineers at heart, but we split the work to avoid overlap.
Fab handles customer support, SEO, design, and front-end development.
I take care of back-end development, outbound, social media content, and sales.
None of this is rocket science.
But it works.
It's the reason we can make decisions fast, avoid ego battles, and still enjoy working together after almost a decade.
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👋 Hey, I'm J.Y!
I'm the co-founder of BuddiesHR, the #1 suite of Slack apps.
Using Slack? Give it a try, it's a no-brainer.
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