​SESSION 2

​Founder Fit

​Why you, why now — defining your north star & exit parameters

​Ideas don't build companies. Founders do. But not every founder is the right founder for every problem — and the fastest way to waste years of your life is to pursue a venture you were never truly positioned to win.

​This 45-minute workshop — Session 2 of The Psychology of Startups: Building Something Meaningful — is a direct, evidence-based examination of founder fit: what makes you uniquely suited to solve a specific problem, the psychological trade-offs of building solo versus with a co-founder, and how to set up the structural rules of engagement that give your team the best shot at surviving early-stage chaos.

​Led by Morné Maritz, organisational psychologist and veteran of over 20 years building and advising Fortune 500 companies, this session draws on behavioural science, real case studies, and hard-won founder experience to help you answer one of the most important questions you'll ever face: Why me?

​✅ What You'll Learn

• ​How to conduct a Founder-Market Fit audit across three dimensions of unfair advantage

• ​The data behind solo vs. co-founder models — and how to make the right call for you

• ​How to build rules of engagement that prevent founder conflict before it starts

• ​How to define your North Star metric and set honest exit parameters

• ​What investors look for when they evaluate founding teams

​⚙️ What You'll Need

• ​AI subscription (Ideally Claude + Perplexity)

• ​Notion or note-taking tool

• ​Homework from Session 1

​⚡️ What You'll Get

• ​Homework for session 3

• ​Your own Forcefield Analysis

• ​De-Risking Strategy

• ​Outline for your PESTLE and SWOT & SOAR

​🎤 Your Facilitator: Morné Maritz — Founder & CEO, Cogniate | Author, The Leadership Balance Triangle (endorsed by Marshall Goldsmith) | Organisational Psychologist | Former Accenture & EY Partner | Former professional athlete | Neurodivergent founder and advocate for diverse founding teams.

​🎤 Your Host: Diane Gogoleva — Networking Expert & Events Curator | Passionate about creating founder communities where real conversations happen.

​This is Session 2 of 9. Attend the full series for maximum impact — each session builds deliberately on the last.