In this bonus episode of ’How I Met My Co-Founder,’ guest host Crystelle Desnoyer, former Chief of Staff to the CEO of Techstars, switches roles to interview show host Annie Garofalo about her unique specialization in supporting co-founder relationships.

This week’s episode brings professor-student duo from University of Michigan, Brian Moore (CEO) and Prof. Jason Corso (CSO), co-founders of Voxel51, an open source toolkit to enable better data and better models. They discuss transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship in AI, shedding the “faculty” and “student” roles, changing CEO titles earlier last year, how they made a major pivot (and if it was the right choice), as well as how they tackled one of their biggest disagreements - deciding when to fundraise.

In our first live recording in New York City, guests Andrew Hoh and Sarmad Qadri, co-founders of LastMile AI, share their experiences transitioning from working at Meta to launching their own AI developer platform.

Curious about what it’s like to date (and marry) your co-founder? Meet Alana and Jason, co-founders of How to Change the World. The two serendipitously met at a cooking class in London, met up for a (professional?) coffee a few days later, joined forces as co-founders, and, prompted by a mutual friend, decided to listen to their hearts and start dating.

Meet Cohabit’s multinational founding trio — Vaish brings nearly a decade of experience leading non-profit teams in India, Jed managed one of the top fast-food chains in the Philippines, and Max is a multi-time founder from Europe. The three met during their grad program in sustainability in Sweden and Cohabit, a circular furniture rental startup, was born.

Juanita Duque (CEO) and Olga Botero (CTO), co-founders of Seccuri, are the first mother-daughter co-founders in the cybersecurity sector.

Meet the Tonic.ai founding team - a four person founding team that overcame the odds and raised $47M, making them one of 7% of teams this size to successfully raise over $10M. How did they do it? Listen to their team story to learn how they overcame the odds and come to your own conclusion on how many co-founders is too many.

Patricia Riopel & Enrico Magnani made waves in 2017 as the first search fund couple. In this episode, we discuss • Why buy an existing company (versus start one from scratch) • The pros (and cons) of a partnered search • What makes a good partner (in a professional sense) • How to approach disagreements when your business partner is your spouse • Communicating openly with investors about relationship status • Come meet us (Pat, Enrico, & Annie) at ⁠MIT’s ETA Conference⁠ (Feb 15th)

Spencer Shulem, Nikhil Shinday, and Adam Stanford are co-founders of AI company, BuildBetter. After a decade working in and around startups, Spencer and Adam started BuildBetter in 2020. Soon after, Spencer brought in his childhood friend, Nikhil, as a third co-founder and CTO. Since then, they’ve secured millions in funding from leading investors like Wing, Tidal, Surface, Village Global, and OnDeck, and Telegraph Hill Capital and made thousands of product teams around the globe more efficient. But those are the only business stats you’ll see today. Instead, our conversation with Spencer and Nikhil focuses exclusively on the relational-side of venture building: the co-founder relationship. How did trust and respect evolve? Who owns what in the company? What’s the essence of being a co-founder? And of course, what are the juiciest conflicts and how are they resolved?

Subscribe to keep up-to-date with new episodes! Or join our newsletter to get summaries and transcripts delivered right to your inbox: www.confidante.info/podcast How I Met My Co-Founder: The Podcast How I Met My Co-Founder sheds light on the pivotal, often underestimated discussions that make or break a founding team. This business podcast aims to reduce the 65% of startup teams that fail due to co-founder conflict (The Founder’s Dilemma). Join us for riveting stories from entrepreneurs of diverse stages, sizes, and setups as they share their perspectives on co-founding teams. Successful startups begin with strong partnerships.   Hosted by Annie Garofalo, sponsored by Confidante. Annie Garofalo, founder of Confidante, has immersed herself in a decade-long journey studying the art of founding team dynamics. Passionate about working with early-stage startups, she seamlessly blends entrepreneurial acumen, organizational behavior insights, and the finesse of relationship therapy to keep strong founding teams healthy. Annie had an early glimpse into the significance of co-founder dynamics when she co-founded her first company with a close childhood friend. This pivotal experience fueled her to delve deeper into the research. At Stanford, she fused entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, and relationship therapy through their joint MBA and Sociology MA program. Annie's professional tapestry weaves together roles as a former founder, investor, C-suite executive, team coach, and growth strategy consultant.  At Confidante, we actively study and support founding team relationships. With the awareness that 65% of companies falter due to co-founder issues, we've crafted preventative programs. Teaming up with leading investors and accelerators, we pioneer research and proactive solutions, strengthening the bedrock of startups—the co-founder relationship. Discover more about our research, approach, and resources at: www.confidante.info