Co-founder conflict support and relationship governance for founder teams under pressure

Prevent avoidable breakdowns, diagnose hidden strain early, or work through live conflict with structured, commercially grounded support.

I help founder teams repair trust, strengthen how they work together, or separate with less damage to the business, the leadership team, and the people involved.

Book a Co-Founder Sherpa Diagnostic
Explore ways to work with Jane
Co-founder tension is rarely just personal. It affects decisions, roles, pace, confidence, cash, team morale and the value of the business.

You may be here because…

These are not just relationship problems. They are business risks. When co-founder strain goes unaddressed, it slows decisions, weakens execution, affects morale, and can damage company value by 20–45%.

Book a Co-Founder Sherpa Diagnostic
Explore the Co-Founder Sherpa Program

What do you need help with?

Start with the situation that best matches where things are now. You do not need full agreement, or all the answers, to take the next step.

We want to stay aligned as we grow

The business is changing: growth, funding, new hires, shifting roles, or different personal pressures. You want to strengthen the relationship and the governance around it before tension becomes more costly.

Best next step: Relationship Governance for Co-Founders

Explore Relationship Governance

I’m worried, but they’re not ready

You need a confidential space to think clearly before raising the issue, testing your instincts, or suggesting outside support. This is often the right first step when only one founder is ready to engage.

Best next step: Co-Founder Sherpa Diagnostic

Start With the Sherpa Diagnostic

We are stuck or in conflict

You are repeating the same arguments, decisions are dragging, trust is under pressure, or the day-to-day business is starting to feel the strain. You need to understand what is really going on and find a workable route forward.

Best next step: The Co-Founder Sherpa Program

Enquire About the Sherpa Programme

We may need to separate

You are questioning whether the partnership can continue, or one founder may need to leave. You want to protect the business, make sensible decisions, and handle any transition with as much clarity and dignity as possible.

Best next step: The Co-Founder Sherpa Programme

Enquire About the Sherpa Programme

How the Sherpa support works

A safer way to deal with difficult co-founder issues

When both co-founders are ready to address what is happening, the Sherpa Programme provides a structured route from tension and uncertainty to clearer decisions and workable agreements. It combines private reflection, targeted analysis, and facilitated conversations led by Jane.

1. Prepare privately

each founder reflects separately before joint work begins

2. Surface the pattern

The key tensions, risks, and possible points of agreement are mapped clearly.

3. Work through the hard issues

Trust, roles, contribution, decision-making, and the future of the partnership are addressed directly.

4. Agree what happens next

you leave with practical actions and, where relevant, a written summary of agreed principles.

Enquire About the Sherpa Program works
Not ready to do this together? Start with the Sherpa Diagnostic.

Practical outcomes, not just insight

The aim is not simply to talk things through. It is to leave with clearer decisions, better working agreements, and a more stable basis for running the business.

Alignment Summary

Where you agree, where assumptions differ, and which decisions need attention.

Working Agreement

Practical clarity on roles, decision rights, communication, contribution, meetings, and accountability.

30-90 Day Reset Plan

Agreed actions, owners, timelines, and review points.

Transition Roadmap, where needed

Operational and decision-making clarity if separation becomes the right route.

See how the Co-Founder Sherpa Program works

Why Jane?
Practical support from someone who understands what is at stake

I am a founder, board adviser, and co-founder conflict specialist. I understand how quickly relationship strain can become a commercial problem when trust drops, decisions stall, or the leadership team starts to fracture. I help founders move beyond circular arguments and vague frustration towards clearer decisions, stronger working agreements, and a more realistic way forward.

My work sits at the intersection of business strategy and relational psychology.

I also work with investors, boards, and advisers who need a credible intervention when co-founder strain begins to threaten value, continuity, or leadership effectiveness.

Read Jane’s Story
Co‑founder conflict specialist and author Jane Hales
Join the wait list for her forthcoming book The Distance Between Us

Author of The Distance Between Us: Rebuilding Co-Founder Trust, Resolving Conflict or Ending the Partnership with Dignity

A practical guide for co-founders when the relationship is under strain.

Jane’s book brings together the patterns that repeatedly damage co-founder relationships: unspoken expectations, unclear roles, broken trust, unequal contribution and difficult exits. It offers a practical way to recognise the warning signs and have the conversations that too many founder teams postpone

Explore the Book

Keynotes and workshops

Practical insight for founder communities, boards and leadership teams.

Jane speaks about co-founder conflict, relationship governance, founder exits and the business cost of leaving partnership strain unaddressed. Available for conferences, founder programmes, accelerators, investor networks and board-level events.

See speaking topics

Client Types

Built for co-founders at different stages: The common thread is that the partnership matters to the future of the business.

Ambitious or funded founders

You are preparing for investment, rapid growth, a major hire, a new market or a strategic pivot. You want your co-founder relationship and governance to be strong enough for the next stage.

Successful, revenue-generating business partners​

The company is working, but roles, workload, authority, pay, energy or ambition have drifted. You need to update the agreement behind the business before the relationship starts to hold it back.

Friends or family who founded together

You have a personal relationship as well as a commercial one. You want to deal with difficult issues honestly without damaging the people or the business you care about.

Investors, boards and advisers

You support a founder team that is under pressure, stuck in a decision or facing a relationship risk that could affect value, performance or continuity. You are worried and you want a relevant intervention.

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Testimonials​

It’s rare that you meet decent business people that have morals, ethics and can truly walk the walk, but Jane does it with grace, style and an amazing understanding of what stands in the way of progress. She has a range of qualities but it’s her ability to enable people to get to better, with an analytical brain and a get under the hood attitude she is a great mentor and problem solving.

Jane is a genuine leader in every sense of the word. After due diligence and research she backs her runners and commits to change that keeps delivering value. Having worked with Jane directly for over 5 years on several business projects she’s proved a great deal, time and time again. With her skill set and varied expertise and entrepreneurial spirit, Jane knows how to deliver a capable and superior end result that is built with solid strategy in mind, has real-world capability, and process in mind at the heart – to support whatever challenge and outcome to grow, flourish, adapt and move forward.

Justin Robert Price, CEO JRP Ltd

Resources

Practical guidance for difficult co-founder moments

Misalignment compounds. Early repair is cheaper than founder fallout.

Did you know that 43% of UK Co-founders have been forced to buy out a co-founder?

If you are a stable or growing co-founder team

Strengthen the relationship, clarify expectations, and put better governance around the partnership before strain escalates.

Explore Relationship Governance
If you need private clarity first, or your co-founder won’t come to the table

Start with a confidential diagnostic to understand the real issue, test your instincts, and decide what to do next.

Book a Co-Founder Sherpa Diagnostic
If all co-founders are ready to work on issues together

Use the Sherpa Programme to surface the real problems, work through conflict, and agree a clearer path forward.

Explore the Co-Founder Sherpa Program

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