Your Co-Founder dynamic will continually change and evolve, just like any relationship in your life. The challenge though is that any shifts in a Co-Founder relationship also affect your business, so the impact feels bigger. 

Before jumping into, ‘what do I do?”, start with some self-awareness. Your Co-Founder’s behaviour isn’t creating your frustration, your interpretation of it is. That’s not to say your frustration isn’t valid, but understanding why you feel this way will help you move forward productively.

Ask yourself:

• What is it about their response that bothers me so much?

• Do I believe that accelerating now is the only way to succeed?

• Is this bringing up a fear that if we don’t act now, we’ll lose momentum?

• Could this be reminding me of a past experience where not pushing lead to a negative outcome?

• Have I actually asked them about their perspective, or am I making assumptions?

Once you’ve explored that, then consider a broader perspective. Here are a few ways to look at the situation:

1 - Are you measuring success in the same way? Does "traction" mean the same thing to both of you? Are you looking at revenue, partnerships, product milestones, or something else? If you haven’t clearly defined what success at this stage looks like, you might not actually be misaligned, you might just have different measures of progress.

2 - What’s the journey been like to get here? Have they actually disengaged, or are they pacing themselves for long-term sustainability? Growth can be exhausting. If they’re stepping back, it might be about recalibrating after an intense push rather than losing motivation.

3 - What does 'doing more' mean to you?
Are you equating effort with hours worked? Do you see action as the only way to maintain momentum? If your Co-Founder is shifting focus to strategy, systems, or team-building, that’s still progress, it just might not look like the "push harder" approach.

4 - Is uncertainty playing a role? Growth stages can create ambiguity. If the next steps haven’t been clearly mapped out, you and your Co-Founder might be responding to that uncertainty in opposite ways - one pushing forward, the other stepping back to reassess.

Now, instead of assuming, open up the conversation. Ask questions to get on the same page:

• "How are you feeling about where we are right now?"

• "What do you see as the next big step for us?"

• "How do we want to define success moving forward?"

• "How can we make sure we stay aligned as we grow?"

Your Co-Founder dynamic will always evolve. The key is to recognise these shifts as natural and approach them with curiosity instead of frustration. Use them as a chance to strengthen your partnership.