MEDIATION for tech companies in amsterdam
We offer facilitation and mediation in innovative business environments. For most of our clients, our business feeling and digital understanding is a big plus, with extensive knowledge on shareholder and management issues.
Moreover, we are experienced in disputes relating to Intellectual Property, R&D, and Liabilities and Warranties.
Whenever there is an issue to be solved in mediation you can be assured we are aware of the intricacies and challenges involved therewith.
We facilitate talks and mediate (potential) conflicts with:
Investors: relationships with investors may need to be led by a third party. Differences in cultures (finance and tech), age, or nationality, can be a cause of conflict or misunderstanding. Mediation can streamline and keep the sensitive balance.
Software Providers and other Suppliers: payment disputes, misunderstanding about terms, warranties, claw back provisions etc. can be resolved through mediation. Branch specific knowledge is essential.
startups and scaleups mediation
Yearly almost 3.000 startups (and scaleups) in The Netherlands fail purely because of disharmony within the leadership team.
This is one of the conclusions of the Scaleup Dashboard 2017 produced by Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE), a part of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).
The number of startups that grows into a fast-growing company – or scaleup – grows fast. However, as a rule, 90% of all startups (of around 3200 in total) per year fail.
So, a little less than 3.000 startups in The Netherlands fail.
One of the biggest causes of startup deaths is co-founders not getting along with each other. Resulting in the founding team drifting apart and ultimately splitting up.
CAUSE 1: DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
A startup ideally has a balanced team. The ‘holy startup triangle’: a hipster, hacker, hustler (aka designer, engineer and marketeer/salesperson). In other words, a team with more than one discipline, varying characters and backgrounds. These different characters do not always speak the same language and come from different cultures.
CAUSE 2: RESULTS VS RELATIONSHIPS
Co-founders are working hard on the business side, as they are asked and committed to do. Often not keeping a keen eye on the people or human side and often silently neglecting the talks needed to steer the company into safe waters.
Complicating factor
As meditators and facilitators, we have very witnessed that co-founders have different and often conflicting interests and values when managing their venture. Moreover, on a human level, friendship or family-ties can stand in the way of being honest and outspoken. Consequently, often they are hesitant to tackle the unsaid (sticky) stuff.
WE TEACH HABITS OF SPEAKING
exploreMediation helps investors and co-founders to safeguard one of the main assets of a company: harmony within the team. We prevent major disputes, by opening up discussions in an early stage.
IN OUR meditation WE AIM TO ACHIEVE:
participation from every co-founder.
re-align the focus of co-founders.
open up the founder's perspectives to each other.
work with resistance
deal with difficult conversations.
work effectively with small teams.
create positive energy around new development, strategy or project.
inspire and motivate co-founders to get the habit of communicating early, so in the end, them managing a team is self-supporting.
founder facilitation
We hold talks with co-founders (or management team): we call it founder facilitation. Usually, these sessions are held at the offices of the startups or at the incubator.
Co-founders sit together with us, usually 4 – 6 times per year, and discuss a topic of their choosing (we use cards and post-its to open up the discussion): e.g. commitment to the team, shareholdings, remote work, legalities, long term strategy, business plan, hosting weekly founder dinners, yearly trips or other ‘bonding’ events.
METHODOLOGY
By creating an environment that is open and safe, we mediate the process of communication on difficult topics. We won't give answers or solutions, but rather support the founders to find the answers within and between themselves allowing them to determine the way forward.
We do so by allowing parties to talk and actively listen to each other better and more regularly; this way they collaborate better, trust each other's strengths and which will eventually empower them to take decisions as a team during stress or pressure times.
periodic MEETINGS
We facilitate (or mediate) periodic talks with co-founders or management team in the company's own environment or online in the following way:
these sessions are held at the offices of the startups or at the incubator.
two mediators in the room facilitate talks between the co-founders.
usually 4 – 6 times per year.
We discuss a topic of their choosing: e.g. commitment to the team, shareholdings, remote work, legal, long term strategy, businessplan, financing, exit strategy, friendship, work – life balance and many more.
The outcomes:
resolving of potential or old resentments;
learning to communicate with each other;
solving (potential) conflicts in the future.
Follow-up practices
Subsequently we follow-up with practices to build an open culture.
Healthy communication habits are promoted:
daily practices (for the leadership team) to listen more to each other and take in different perspectives;
we promote healthy habits to help founders bond such as morning check-in's, weekly co-founder dinners, yearly outings;
as a result, founders become wise leaders and promote a better culture in their teams. Moreover team-members learn to self-facilitate and resolve controversies, start to communicate with each other and show less resentment or passive-aggressive behaviors.
COMMERCIAL OFFER
We are hired by investors and accelerators to work with their startups. Our base offer is informed by our experience of seeing conversations between founders periodically being frozen for a long period which often results in important decisions being postponed, rushed, or not developed properly. Therefore, our offers are based on 4 sessions per year of 2 hours, during which we help founders to open up difficult conversations towards emerging creative steps. The first round is free of charge, to see if parties get along.
Hourly rates may be charged in case of emergency conflicts resulting in the need for our mediation.
OUR BACKGROUND
At exploreMediation, we are between age 30 and 50. We have a core background in law, coaching & mediation in the fields of technology and innovation. We have worked alongside (UK, Irish, Dutch, Brazilian, US) friends and colleagues in startups and have cofounded businesses of our own. We now build upon that experience. As facilitators and/or mediators we help young founders navigate difficult discussions towards better decisions and creative solutions.
Meet the facilitators
Robert de Wilde
Robert is a co-founder in a UK based startup and a certified mediator (MfN certified), facilitator and business coach. Originally working as an (IT technology) lawyer, Robert transformed himself into a business coach and mediator. He has been a sparring-partner of many creatives (in Dutch entertainment), professionals, executives, founders and partners of professional firms. As lawyer (independent) he worked alongside many marketing, finance, tech and procurement teams at companies like Vodafone, Accenture, Philips Lighting, Cap-Gemini, Ericsson, Fujifilm, PepsiCo, Canon, ABB, Sabic, XS4ALL, KPN, Accenture, BHP Billiton, Eaton, Lycos Europe and Shell.
Alessandro Mazzi
Alessandro is a startup consultant with expertise ranging from project governance design, business contracting, and partnership design. For the past five years, he has worked closely with founders and teams from different cultures and regions in the field of emerging innovation including blockchain, artificial intelligence, and tech for sustainability. Before diving into the world of innovation and collaboration, he worked in law firms in China and Australia specialised in international commercial dispute resolution. His interest is in meaningful innovation and is passionate about facilitating collaborations between individuals and groups with shared radical ideas.
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