
Conscious Co-founders
Raaz Chuhan
Description
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this conversation, I sat down with my friend Doug Erwin, the Senior Vice President of Entrepreneurial Development at EDAWN, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Doug is a former serial entrepreneur turned economic developer and executive coach, and he’s committed to growing Northern Nevada’s startup and technology ecosystem. His community work has helped change the perception of Reno and lay the foundation for future generations of entrepreneurs to thrive in the region. Doug is proud to support entrepreneurs as they embark upon their own journeys. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Doug shares, with great clarity, vulnerability and humility, his entrepreneurial journey and some key lessons he’s learned along the way.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I invited Doug to have a conversation with me about what it might mean to be a conscious cofounder, given Doug’s personal work on mindfulness. Towards the end of the conversation, we arrive at the idea that we are our own most important cofounder - the conversations we have with ourselves will either lead us to lean into or turn away from challenging conversations with our cofounders.</span> <a href= "https://www.danielstillman.com/blog/triple-loop-learning"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> And with the lens of Triple Loop Learning,</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">we can start to create better cofounder relationships, not just with better contracts and financial structures, but from our way of being.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The basic metaphor is this: Work is a relationship. And relationships are made of conversations.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And you can hear this in Doug's description of a company as a “rebound startup” or talking about startups like a marriage.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And just like in personal relationships, sometimes, as Doug says, people want to