Helping unconventional founders & execs lead through hard pivots · Author: THE PATH TO PIVOT · Uncle Iroh with a side of Genie · 3x venture-backed startup founder · 1st gen immigrant · ADHD · Meta + Etsy alum

You’ve been avoiding a hard conversation with your cofounder. You know the one.

Years ago, I was you. Started a company with two close friends, raised money, hit every milestone. And watched the partnership fall apart in slow motion because none of us could speak honestly about how we felt.

We were “conflict-avoidant,” which sounds peaceful but actually meant unspoken tension and resentment built up silently. By the time we tried to address it it was too late. That company didn’t survive. The friendship eventually recovered.

I became obsessed with understanding why. I studied  with the Gottman Institute and poured over partnership dynamics research. What I found: most cofounder conflicts follow patterns. And they respond to specific interventions if you know what they are.

Now I coach founders through the same thorny problems that took years off my life. 

Hi, I’m Jason Shen - executive coach, author, and ice cream fiend. 

As a 3x founder, YC alum, and former product leader at Meta and Etsy, I’ve lived both early-stage chaos and operational discipline at scale. I bring both to my work.

More on what I do: 

➣ COFOUNDER CONFLICT COACHING

I help cofounders repair their working relationship before they ruin their company. In a 13 week partnership intensive, you will reconnect with your most crucial ally, find common ground, and gain the skills needed to collaborate at full strength. 

Learn more: https://cofounder.repair

➣ 1:1 EXEC COACHING

Not every founder problem is a partnership problem. I also work 1:1 with founders facing pivots, transitions, and the kind of decisions where the stakes are high and the right answer isn’t obvious. Same in-the-trenches perspective, focused on you.

Discovery call: https://calendly.com/jason-shen/discovery

🌱 Jason Shen

90% of startup founders will never need to hire a conflict coach if they just do one thing every single week.

It's not complicated. It's a 30m weekly meeting where you and your cofounder talk about how you're actually doing.

Not the roadmap.
Not the next release.
Not the latest metrics.

But how you're doing as people and as partners.

I call it the Founder Heart-to-Heart

Yes yes I know you already talk to your cofounder all time in standup, planning meetings, Slack, etc

But all of that is operational. It's about the work, the problems, the tactics.

Conflict happens when two founders drift, not on the task level, but on the process, role, and vision level.

You don't clarify things. You make assumptions. You jump to conclusions.

And over time, that drift creates a rift and mistrust.

I did this with my cofounder Wayne with Headlight & MIdgame nearly every week and it saw us through funding challenges, growth plateaus, hard pivots, team turnovers and more.

So what do you talk about during your Heart-to-Hearts?

Up to you but here's 4 questions you can use (or build your own with a deck of Cofounder Mode from Annie Garofalo and Francois Le Nguyen)

1. What are you grateful for?

What your co-founder's been doing that you noticed, what's going well, what's good in life outside work. This is about remembering your co-founder is a full person, not just a function.

2. What's stressing you out?

The rule here is NO problem-solving. Don't jump to fixes. You'll have plenty of meetings for that. This one is for listening and making sure you actually know what's weighing on other.

3. What questions or puzzles do you have for me? This is the closest you get to feedback, but framed as curiosity. "I noticed you said you'd own that hire, but I haven't seen movement — did something change?" Not an accusation. A clarification.

4. What are your hopes and dreams?

End on something positive. Short-term, long-term, doesn't matter. "I really hope this deal lands." "I want us to exit for a ridiculous number." You didn't start a company without big visions — this is a chance to share them.

Two more things to keep in mind:

Change the setting. Go for a walk, hit a coffee shop. Make it feel different from every other meeting on your calendar.

Schedule it and protect it. Don't skip it when things are busy or when things feel fine b/c that's exactly when the drift starts. Don't let it become a venting session or a planning meeting. Keep it about the two of you.

If this sounds a lot like a marriage or couple's check in, you're not wrong. The principle is the same: an important relationship needs time to tend to itself.

Jason 🧠 Shen

Helping cofounders repair their partnership · Exec coach to ambitious outliers & brilliant misfits · 3x founder & YC S11 alum · Author of ‘The Path to Pivot’ & ‘Weirdly Brilliant’ · Retired NCAA 🏆 gymnast

Sometimes cofounders in conflict talk about wanting to just communicate "like professionals".

While I get what they mean, they misunderstand the nature of a startup.
Being professional is a waypoint to an optimal partnership.

Because great founders are often the antithesis of professional.

They're passionate, intense, unreasonable, impatient, unrelenting, and often delusional (in the best way).

To truly make it through the trough of sorrow that every startup faces, you need to have more than just a "professional" relationship with your cofounder.

You need to feel like this is someone you will fight for, who will have your back, whose life you deeply care about, who you trust enough to put your life in their hands.

That's far beyond a mere "professional" relationship.

Of course constant bickering and fighting does no one any good. But removing that is not enough.

I want you to walk away knowing you have a partner who you can truly count on.

AI Advisor & Enterprise Architect | Guiding Europe’s AI Innovation & Compliance | Board Member, Author, Speaker | Based in Brussels, EU

AI Advisor & Technology Speaker | Top AI Voice | Board Member | Author | Enterprise Architect
Guiding Europe’s AI Innovation | 114K+ Followers | 50K+ AI Daily Nutshell Readers | Based in Brussels, EU

I am an AI Advisor, Technology Speaker, Board Member, Author, and Enterprise Architect based in Brussels, EU, helping professionals and organizations across Europe understand and adopt AI with clarity, confidence, and responsibility.

With a community of 112,000+ followers on LinkedIn and 50,000+ readers of my AI Daily Nutshell newsletter, I simplify complex AI topics and translate them into practical insights that leaders, teams, and individuals can act on immediately.

For over 20 years, I have worked across enterprise architecture, cloud, data centres, automation, and digital transformation. Today, my focus is on guiding Europe through the fast-evolving AI landscape — from emerging tools and responsible AI practices to policy, strategy, and the impact of the EU AI Act.

My mission is simple:
Make AI understandable for everyone, and empower Europe to innovate with purpose.

I speak at global tech summits, advise organizations on AI strategy, mentor startups, and engage daily with a global community eager to learn, grow, and stay ahead of change.

If you’re interested in:
• Simplifying AI in practical language
• Understanding AI trends shaping Europe
• Enterprise architecture and transformation
• The EU AI Act and responsible AI
• Emerging tools, future skills, and digital leadership
— you will find daily, value-driven content here.

📍 Based in Brussels, EU
🌍 Collaborating with organizations and communities across Europe and beyond
💬 Open to speaking engagements, advisory roles, and meaningful discussions on the future of AI

#AIEurope #EuropeTech #DigitalEurope #EuropeanInnovation
#Entrepreneurship #ITAdvisory #BoardMember #AIInnovation #BlockchainStrategist #TechVisionary

ChandraKumar R Pillai

Google quietly released 10 AI courses.🚨

100% FREE.
Built for real-world hiring, not hype.

If you’re trying to break into AI, or stay relevant as roles evolve, this is the kind of foundation employers actually respect.

👉 These courses teach what recruiters expect you to understand.

Here’s what you can start learning today:

1. Generative AI (Foundations)
Understand how generative AI works and build simple applications
🔗 https://lnkd.in/ghGR-kqa

2. Large Language Models (LLMs)
How models like ChatGPT think, learn, and improve
🔗 https://lnkd.in/gMKCQ7nf

3. Responsible AI
How ethical, fair, and safe AI systems are designed
🔗 https://lnkd.in/g4EAJmGT

4. Prompt Design (Vertex AI)
Write prompts that actually produce useful results
🔗 https://lnkd.in/gWJg-6aP

5. Image Generation
How AI creates images from nothing
🔗 https://lnkd.in/ggZWmem7

6. Encoder–Decoder Architecture
The engine behind translation, summarization, and text generation
🔗 https://lnkd.in/gc-g3-fq

7. Attention Mechanism
How AI decides what information matters most
🔗 https://lnkd.in/gfXVJFPw

8. Transformers & BERT
The models that reshaped modern AI (badge included)
🔗 https://lnkd.in/gGGKTCsS

9. Image Captioning Models
Teaching AI to understand and describe images
🔗 https://lnkd.in/g62aH2sf

10. Generative AI Studio
Turn AI ideas into working products using Google’s platform
🔗 https://lnkd.in/gRnedPKk

🎯 Bottom line:
You don’t need more courses.
You need the right ones.

Start here.
Build proof of skill.
Let the results speak.

👉 Which course are you starting with?

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#ai #tech

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Every emotion is speaking to you. Are you listening? 🔑

Anger → move
Envy → focus
Anxiety → slow down
Irritation → pause
Tiredness → rest

When inspiration fades → refresh
When doubt appears → reflect & realign

Sometimes, the smartest choice isn’t action… it’s learning something valuable today. 

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#EmotionalIntelligence #MindfulLeadership #GrowthMindset #CareerWisdom

Every emotion is speaking to you

Most battles are not worth your energy.
A donkey once challenged a lion to fight.

The lion looked… and simply walked away.
Not because he was afraid.

Because he understood something powerful:
True strength is choosing where not to fight.

In business and in life, some people will try to pull you into arguments, ego wars, and distractions.

But leaders know:

• Not every opinion deserves a response
• Not every challenge deserves your time
• Not every noise deserves your attention

Protect your focus.
Protect your energy.
Protect your peace.

Sometimes the most powerful move is simply walking away. 💡

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#success

Donkey

Some companies track attendance.

One Chinese company tracks happiness.

They introduced “Unhappy Leave.”

If you’re not feeling mentally well…
You simply don’t come to work.

No fake excuses. No pretending.

Because showing up exhausted, distracted, or burned out doesn’t help anyone.

Smart companies know this:

People perform better when they’re allowed to be human.

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Happiness

If you’re not using AI yet… you’re working too hard.

Most people spend hours
writing
designing
researching
coding.

When AI can do it in minutes.

So I collected 40 FREE AI tools that can do almost everything.

No fluff.
Just tools that actually save time.

Steal the list.

And start working 10x faster. 

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40 FREE AI TOOLS

Before you spend 100K on a business degree…

Watch these 12 movies.

Because money is not just numbers.
It’s psychology.
It’s leverage.
It’s risk.
It’s timing.

And the best lessons don’t come from professors.
They come from real stories of ambition, greed, collapse, and comeback.

Financial literacy is a life skill.
Not a semester subject.

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Watch These 12 Movies

100 Books That Teach More Than Any Degree

Most people spend years chasing a degree. But the smartest lessons in life? You’ll find them in books.

Books show you:
▶️ How money really works
▶️ How great businesses are built
▶️ How powerful thinkers solve impossible problems
▶️ How successful people see the world differently

You don’t need a classroom to learn from Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Naval Ravikant, or Peter Thiel. One book can completely change your perspective on money, risk, opportunity, and life.

The real advantage isn’t information. It’s thinking better than the average person. And reading is the fastest way to build that edge.

📚 Save this post your future self will thank you.

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100 Books

Most people think they need another degree to get ahead.

They don’t.

They need better teachers.

The internet is the largest free college in the world.

The problem?
98% of people don’t know where the best professors are.

Instead of learning, they scroll.

But one hour a day on the right platforms can teach you skills most universities never will.

Here are 22 websites that will accelerate your learning faster than traditional education.

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22 Websites

Most people are paying for AI they don’t actually need.

Monthly subscriptions.
Multiple tools.
Half of them doing the same thing.

But here’s the truth:

You can run almost your entire workflow using free AI tools.

Writing.
Design.
Research.
Automation.
Presentations.

No credit card required.

I put together a list of 27 powerful AI tools you can use for free so you can stop stacking subscriptions and start working smarter.

Some of these tools can easily replace the paid ones.

Check the carousel to see all 27.

Save this for later.
You’ll want to come back to it.

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Never pay for Al again

14 Problems. 14 Books. 14 Fixes. 📚

You don’t need more motivation.
You need the right book for the right problem.

No consistency? → Atomic Habits
No focus? → Deep Work
Emotional money decisions? → The Psychology of Money
Overthinking? → The Power of Now
Self-sabotage? → The Mountain Is You
No execution? → Get It Done Now!

Reading won’t change your life.
Applied reading will.

Pick one problem.
Read one book.
Upgrade one level. 🚀

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#books #success

Books 

Power fades. Titles expire. Attention moves on.

At the very end, Alexander the Great didn’t talk about how much he owned or how far he expanded.

He pointed to something most people ignore until it’s too late:

👉 Status doesn’t survive time
👉 Wins don’t equal meaning
👉 Legacy isn’t what you take, it’s what you stand for

The real scorecard of life isn’t measured in dominance.
It’s measured in intention, integrity, and impact.

Build accordingly.

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Alexander the Great

GOOGLE JUST BUILT A FULL AI WORKFLOW.

Most people haven’t noticed it yet…

But when they do, it’s going to completely change the way we work, create, and make decisions.

Every task you do today could be automated tomorrow.

This is insane, and the world is not ready for it.

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GOOGLE

Umesh Kutte

AI skills are quickly becoming the new literacy.

And Nvidia just made learning them a lot easier.

They quietly released multiple AI courses that cost nothing.
Skills companies are paying thousands of dollars for today… free to learn.

Inside these courses you’ll explore:

➡️ Building AI models
➡️ Understanding generative AI
➡️ Working with RAG systems and large language models
➡️ Speeding up data science workflows

The reality is simple:

Most people wait until a technology becomes mainstream before they start learning it.

By then, the biggest opportunities are already taken.

The people who win are the ones who start beforel everyone else notices.

AI isn’t replacing people.

It’s replacing people who refuse to learn how to use it.

Save this post so you can come back to these resources later

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Nvidia free Al courses

Japan sleeps less — yet lives longer 🇯🇵💤

Not because of more hours.
Because of better habits.

➡️ Deep sleep > long sleep
➡️ Hot evening baths = natural drowsiness
➡️ Daily walking = circadian sync
➡️ Light, balanced meals = metabolic calm
➡️ Public rest = dedication, not laziness

Sleep isn’t the goal.
It’s the result of how you live your day.

Fix light, movement, and nutrition,
and sleep follows.

Swipe ⬅️

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#Sleep #Longevity #Japan #Wellness #Health

Sleep

Lamborghini didn’t start with supercars.
Samsung didn’t start with smartphones.
LG didn’t start with global tech.
IKEA didn’t start with iconic furniture.

They all started small.
Unexpected.
Imperfect.

What made the difference wasn’t luck.
It was consistency.
Step by step.
1% better every day.

Progress looks boring before it looks brilliant.
Beginnings don’t decide endings.
And where you are right now doesn’t define where you’ll finish.

Keep building.
Keep showing up.
Great things grow quietly first.

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Great things often begin humbly

RIP LinkedIn & Indeed ❌
(Not dead. Just… not enough anymore.)

Smart candidates aren’t applying harder.
They’re applying smarter.

They’re using exact AI prompts to:

→ Fix weak resumes
→ Prepare killer interview answers
→ Write cover letters recruiters actually read
→ Optimize LinkedIn profiles for inbound calls

Result?
📈 Interviews 5x faster
🤫 Recruiters don’t even realize what changed (yet)

This carousel breaks down the exact prompts.
No fluff. Just leverage.

👉 Save this
👉 Share with anyone job hunting right now
👉 Use it before everyone else does

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#ai #tech

RIP LinkedIn

You weren’t trained for the world you’re in.

You were trained for stability.
You got chaos.

You were told:
Study hard.
Get a job.
Stay loyal.
Win.

Then the rules changed.

Jobs disappeared.
Prices exploded.
Attention became the currency.

So you adapted.

You learned speed after patience.
Digital after analog.
Survival before comfort.

They called you lazy for refusing burnout.
Entitled for asking for balance.
Difficult for questioning broken systems.

Reality:
You weren’t weak.
You were awake.

You chose:
Boundaries over tradition.
Meaning over titles.
Life over endless grind.

You’re the last generation who remembers life before the internet.
And the first forced to build inside it.

That’s not failure.

That’s resilience.

Save this.
Send it to someone who lived it too.

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Millennials

Most people read quotes.
Very few apply them.

That’s the difference between inspiration and transformation.
These 13 life-changing quotes aren’t meant to sound good.
They’re meant to hit, stick, and change how you think.

Read them slowly.
Save the ones that hurt a little.
Revisit them when life gets loud.

Because the right words at the right time
can shift years of thinking in seconds.

📌 Save this for later
🔁 Share this with someone who needs it today

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#success #motivation

Wise man

You can’t control someone who has mastered being alone.

Because they don’t stay out of fear.
They don’t stay out of need.

They stay by choice.

And choice is power.

When you’re okay on your own,
you stop chasing.
You stop begging.
You stop tolerating less than you deserve.

That’s when relationships become intentional — not transactional.

Build a life so full
that anyone in it is there by alignment, not attachment.

That’s real power. 

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#SelfLeadership #InnerStrength #Growth #Mindsetb

Stop Letting Everything Affect You

Kids who went to school in the 1990s had a very different experience.

No laptops.
No Google.
No AI.

Homework meant textbooks and handwritten notes.
Projects meant chart paper, markers, and glue.
Research meant going to the library.

Lunch break meant playing outside with friends.

Today it’s different.

Laptops replace notebooks.
Google replaces the library.
AI helps with assignments.

Information is instant.
Screens are everywhere.

School didn’t just change.

Technology rewrote the classroom.

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The Battle

🌱 Jason Shen

ChandraKumar R Pillai

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Performance Score🌱 Jason Shen's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

🌱 Jason Shen

ChandraKumar R Pillai

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}🌱 Jason Shen's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance Score🌱 Jason Shen's LinkedIn Performance