Alice Bentinck

And I definitely from, you know, from founding EF and Entrepreneurs First is a weird investor in the, you know, we're a team of 100 people.

We're actually structured like a company rather than like a VC firm.

And, you know, I look back on the early days of, yeah, there's so many hard conversations that I should have had, but you sort of shy away from because it would be awkward and you don't really have the skills yet.

There's a book I absolutely love on this that I recommend to first time founders called Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott.

And what I love about it is it gives you a bunch of frameworks for how to have the kind of conversations that make your stomach clench, you know, the ones that you're dreading.

And it both helps you understand why you should be having those conversations and then gives you the structure to have those conversations.

So any first-time founders listening to this, I would strongly recommend reading that book.

Say it again, the name of the book?

It's called Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott.

The bit that I often think of, I'm quite conflict averse.

I'm quite conflict averse.

And so my fear having these conversations, you know, having one of these fierce conversations is that, you know, it's going to be awful for the other person and it'll be awful for me and it'll just be, it's just going to be awful.

And then the framing that she has in the book that I really like is everything will be better the sooner this conversation happens.

You know, this conversation is an unlock.

if you haven't had the fierce conversation, you are on a path that is wrong for both of you.

And so the sooner that you can have this conversation, it will be an unlock for both of you.

Now, even if that means that you're firing somebody, you know, it's better that it happens now and that everyone is able to move on rather than delaying it.

I mean, I do think at one point you could use EF as a way for creating marriages because, you know, really stress testing relationships and enabling people to get past small talk and actually have those fierce conversations.

But no, my husband does not enjoy it when I use any sort of work structures or frameworks on it.

Um, I mean, it's different with, I mean, with co-founders, it's, it's very much productivity.