# founding-exec-team

Recruits compatible co-founders, sequences early leadership hires, and splits equity using insights from Lenny's Podcast. Essential when moving from zero to one.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 315 installs · ★ 1434
- Author: RefoundAI
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/founding-exec-team/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-07-16
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/founding-exec-team

## What it does

This skill guides founders through forming an initial leadership team. It draws on operational lessons from 15 guests across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter. The assistant evaluates skill gaps among existing founders, plans hiring sequences, and drafts founder prenups to handle disputes before they escalate.

Equity allocation follows concrete benchmarks. Late-joining co-founders start around 10% up to an equal split, while early senior engineers typically receive 1% to 5%. Outsourcing the core product build fails early on because static specifications cannot replace rapid technical iterations. Full technical partners are required.

The framework also monitors executive transitions as company complexity doubles. It distinguishes functional team managers from true executives who influence the whole company.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/founding-exec-team/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/founding-exec-team/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/founding-exec-team/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/founding-exec-team/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founding-exec-team
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/founding-exec-team/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills --path skills/founding-exec-team
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/founding-exec-team/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/founding-exec-team/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- structure equity splits for late-joining co-founders and early hires
- identify critical capability gaps in the existing founder roster
- draft a founder prenup to resolve co-founder tensions early
- time the transition from early team leads to scale-stage executives

## Example prompts
- Run a gap analysis on our two-person founding team before we make our first hire
- How should we split equity with a late-joining technical co-founder?
- Draft a founder prenup questionnaire to test alignment with my potential partner

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 3dc7cd0dd270742c.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 3dc7cd0dd270742c
```text
---
name: founding-exec-team
description: Help users recruit compatible co-founders, sequence early leadership hires to fill capability gaps, and manage the evolution of the executive team as the company scales.
---

# Founding Executive Team Building

Design and scale the core leadership layer that drives company growth from zero to one.

Help the user with founding executive team building using insights from 15 guests and posts across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter.

## How to Help

1. **Gap Analysis** - Evaluate your current founding team's strengths and weaknesses to determine the most critical leadership hire.
2. **Equity Structuring** - Provide frameworks for distributing equity among early co-founders and late-joining partners based on long-term impact.
3. **Conflict Prevention** - Guide the use of 'founder prenups' and check-ins to surface and resolve interpersonal tensions before they scale.
4. **Scaling Transitions** - Identify when and how to replace early-stage leaders with executives suited for larger organizational complexity.

## Core Principles

### Sequence based on horsepower
From "Hiring your early team": "Over two-thirds of the companies hired an engineer as employee #1. Not a big surprise. In the rare case when an engineer wasn’t the first hire, it usually came down to the founding team having enough horsepower to build the V1."

Prioritize technical talent in your earliest hires unless the founding team already possesses the internal capacity to build the first version of the product independently.

### Impact-driven equity
From "This Week #8: Splitting equity with late-joining co-founders, favorite roadmap templates, and small changes that improve your org": "If they’re a true cofounder, would you consider giving them equity starting around 10% of the company — all the way up to a share equal to yours? For a very early stage company, we see “late-arriving cofounders” all the time. Otherwise, senior engineers/founding team would usually receive 1-5% of the company. These are all averages and situations definitely differ."

Distribute equity for late-joining co-founders based on their projected long-term contribution to the company rather than just their start date.

### Total organizational influence
Ben Horowitz: "Look, you're a really good director of engineering because you do a great job at managing the team, get the products out, all that. But you're not really a CTO because to be a CTO, you have to be effective with other parts of the organization. You can't just be effective only with engineering."

Measure an executive's success by their ability to collaborate effectively across the entire company rather than just managing their own functional silo.

### Multi-founder preference
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 3dc7cd0dd270742c

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