One of you needs out, or both of you do. There's equity on the table — illiquid, pre-dilution, but real — and a company that still has to operate while you figure this out. Mediation resolves this faster than litigation and at a fraction of the cost — for co-founders and business partners across the Twin Cities, and on video anywhere.
No commitment. 15 minutes. Free.
Co-founders say they want fairness. What I usually find is that what they actually need is for someone to acknowledge what they put into this — the years, the risk, the thing they gave up to be here. Equity is the surface. Recognition is the thing underneath it.
— Ryan McLaughlin, Flannel People Mediation
The person you started this with — the one you sent a hundred Slack messages to at midnight, the one who knew exactly what you meant when you said the product wasn't ready — is now someone you're being careful around. Every conversation has a subtext. Every meeting has a side conversation you're not in.
There's equity on paper that neither of you can touch yet. The company is pre-revenue or early-revenue, the shares are nominally worth something, and the fight is about what that future value means and who deserves it. At seed stage, a 50% stake in a $16 million pre-money valuation is $8 million on paper — and zero dollars in anyone's hand. That's what you're negotiating over. And you know it.
The research on what makes co-founder splits so hard isn't really about equity — it's about the "why" conversation. Why it stopped working. Who was right. What should have happened differently. That conversation is a tar pit. You can spend two years and $150,000 in legal fees relitigating it, or you can separate the exit terms from the origin story and move.
There's a window — before attorneys entrench each side in formal positions — where this is still resolvable through conversation. Most founders who find mediation do it after the window closes, when they're already in it. You're reading this page, which means you may still be in the window.
Tell me where things stand. I'll tell you if I can help.
Both have their place. Neither one is built for where you are right now.
Once attorneys are involved on both sides, positions harden fast. A negotiated departure through lawyers typically runs $5,000–$20,000. If it goes contested — IP disputes, fiduciary claims — you're looking at $100,000–$250,000 per side, and 12 to 27 months. The process is public record. Investors see it.
Arbitration is adjudication with less procedural overhead. Someone still decides for you. The process is adversarial by design. You don't get self-determined terms — you get a ruling. And voluntary compliance with rulings you didn't agree to runs well below 60%.
A structured, confidential process where you and your co-founder — together with a neutral — work out the terms yourselves. Nothing said in mediation can be used in court. You leave with a written agreement that both of you actually made. Total cost: $3,000–$8,000 all-in, not per side.
No surprises. No ambiguity about what you're walking into.
You tell me where things stand: what triggered this, where the sticking points are, whether the business continues or fully dissolves. I ask questions. You leave that call knowing whether mediation makes sense here, and what the process would actually look like. Not a sales pitch — a real conversation about fit.
Before I bring anyone into the same conversation, I talk to each founder separately. I find out what they actually need — not their stated position, but the interest underneath it. What does a good outcome look like for them? What are they afraid of? Where is there more flexibility than they've admitted out loud? This is where I start to understand the shape of a possible agreement.
Structured. I'm in the room for all of it. We work through the five issues that almost always need to be resolved in a co-founder departure: how equity and unvested shares are handled, who owns what IP, what role (if any) the departing founder has going forward, non-compete terms, and how the departure is valued — especially when there's sweat equity vs. cash investment on the table. Nothing gets finalized until both people can live with it.
You leave with something on paper: the agreed equity treatment, IP ownership, any ongoing role, non-compete parameters, and valuation approach. This isn't a legal contract — it's the terms both founders agreed to, in language clear enough that your attorneys can convert it into binding form without relitigating it. Most founders take that document to their respective lawyers for formalization. That step is cheaper when there's nothing left to fight about.
Not a perfect ending. A workable one. Which is usually enough.
One founder leaves. Unvested equity goes back to the company. Vested shares are either retained or repurchased at a price you both agreed to. IP stays with the company. The cap table makes sense. The departing founder is treated with visible respect. Both people can describe what happened the same way. The mediation summary goes to each party's attorney for formalization — that step is shorter when neither side has anything left to argue about.
The company doesn't shut down. The remaining founder has clear authority and a cap table that reflects the new reality. Investors know what happened. Employees don't have to pick sides. The company can still raise, hire, and operate. The window the split opened gets closed.
The fight about who deserves what — cash investor vs. sweat equity — gets resolved through conversation, not a judge. Both perspectives are heard. The agreement reflects something closer to what actually happened, not what each side can prove in court. That's a different document.
Nothing said in mediation can be used in litigation later. The process doesn't appear in court records. Your investors don't read about it. What happens in the session stays there — and what you leave with is an agreement, not a deposition.
Mediator · Flannel People Mediation · St. Paul, MN
I'm not a therapist, not a lawyer, not a business consultant. I'm a mediator — which is a specific thing. My job is to stay in the room while the hard conversation happens, keep it from going sideways, and make sure both people actually get to express what they need rather than performing their negotiating position at each other.
I understand business structures: vesting schedules, operating agreements, the difference between a cap table problem and a communication problem, why the same equity split looks fair to one person and completely wrong to the other. I can engage with the specifics of your situation — I'm not going to need you to explain what a cliff is or why an LLC operating agreement matters. What I don't do is tell you what the terms should be. That's not mediation. That's consulting. Those are different jobs.
The co-founder disputes I've found most useful to work on are the ones where both people still respect each other somewhere underneath the grievance — they're just stuck and they need a structure that lets them say what they actually want without it being interpreted as an opening legal position. 4.9 stars across 250+ Google reviews from people who walked in not sure this would work.
Here's what the experience is like.
"Ryan is a skilled mediator who brings neuropsych research and a strong human presence to his work. His preparation process was unique and led to a more successful experience than with other mediators. I was grateful for his non-judgmental stance and ability to reflect what he was hearing and observing."
"I was skeptical going into this as I had thought that in all situations you should or needed a lawyer to move forward. I was completely wrong. Ryan guided us through every step and helped with any questions we had."
"Ryan did a great job throughout the mediation process. It took us two sessions to work through everything, but he kept the conversations productive and helped both sides stay focused on finding solutions."
Mediation is voluntary — both people have to agree to the process. That said, "I don't want to do mediation" often means "I don't know what I'm agreeing to" or "I'm afraid of what happens if we try this and it doesn't work." The free call is sometimes useful just to understand where the resistance is coming from. Sometimes one founder calling in and explaining what the process actually is — confidential, non-binding, not litigation — changes the other person's read on it.
It matters in that you don't have a written framework to fall back on — no agreed valuation clause, no deadlock mechanism, nothing that says what happens when one of you wants out. That's actually more common than founders assume, especially at the early stage. It doesn't prevent mediation. In some ways it makes mediation more necessary, because there's no document to hand to a lawyer and say "go from here." You need to build the terms from scratch. That's exactly what the process does.
Valuing equity is not my job — that's for accountants, investors, or 409A appraisers, depending on the company's stage. What I can help with is structuring the conversation about how the equity gets treated during a departure: whether unvested shares go back to the company, whether vested shares are retained or repurchased, and at what price and on what timeline. The conversation about value is part of mediation. The actual number is something you may need external help to establish — and I'll tell you that clearly if it comes up.
A lawyer represents you. Their job is to get you the best possible outcome for you — which means their opposing number is doing the same thing for your co-founder. That's useful when you're already in an adversarial position and the relationship is past saving. But it tends to harden positions fast, and once both sides are represented, the cost and timeline escalate quickly. Mediation has a neutral in the room — someone who isn't on anyone's side. The goal is a deal both people actually agree to, not a ruling one side wins. Those produce different kinds of agreements.
Mediation doesn't always produce a full resolution — but it almost always produces clarity. Sometimes both founders leave knowing exactly what the sticking points are, which makes the next conversation — whether that's with lawyers or with a board — a different, shorter conversation. Nothing said in mediation can be used in any subsequent legal proceeding. You're not giving anything up by trying it. And if you end up in litigation anyway, you'll at least know that you tried the shorter path first.
Co-founder mediation typically runs $3,000–$8,000 total — not per side, total — depending on the number of sessions needed and the complexity of the issues. That includes individual calls with each founder, the joint session, and the written summary of agreed terms. It's a flat-fee structure; I'll give you a clear number before anything starts. For context: a negotiated departure through separate attorneys typically costs $5,000–$20,000. A contested dispute can reach six figures per side. The initial call is free.
Free 15-minute call. No commitment.
Before attorneys entrench each side in formal positions, there's a period where this is still resolvable through conversation. Most founders who find mediation reach it after that window closes. The free call takes 15 minutes. You'll know within the first five whether this makes sense for your situation.
Check your email for the confirmation. Here's what to think about before we talk:
Questions before the call? 763-316-8323