Clarify the Departure Planning Goal and Horizon
Establish the precise context, governance boundaries, and timeframe for potential founder departure scenarios across early-stage operations. The founder specifies whether planning addresses voluntary resignation, bad-leaver events, or health-induced exits within a 12 to 24-month horizon.
Clarifying the goal establishes explicit boundaries and temporal triggers for evaluating founder departure contingencies. It prevents emotional biases during crisis situations and ensures the venture maintains operational stability and investor credibility.
Deliver a signed Founder Departure Scope Statement outlining designated trigger events, decision horizons, and governance boundaries. This document must clearly state which founder roles are covered and the agreed timeframe for contingency execution.
Five questions an expert would ask when reviewing your output
Use these to challenge assumptions, pressure-test your logic, and check the quality of this action's output in the context of the parent task and wider venture development.
- 1
What specific trigger events define the boundary between a good leaver and a bad leaver over your 24-month horizon?
- 2
Why have you chosen this particular decision horizon rather than aligning it directly with your next major funding round?
- 3
How does your governance structure enforce these departure definitions if a co-founder disputes the exit classification?
- 4
What evidence demonstrates that all co-founders agree on the defined exit horizon and decision-making authority?
- 5
Where does this scope statement expose the venture to key-person dependency risks if a sudden departure occurs next month?