Idea Refinement
addyosmani/agent-skills
Guides a conversation that takes a vague idea through divergent and convergent thinking and ends in a markdown one-pager covering scope and assumptions.
Help users recruit compatible co-founders, sequence early leadership hires to fill capability gaps, and manage the evolution of the executive team as the company scales.
MITAuto-check passed
Install Founding Exec Team
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founding-exec-team --agent claude-codeProject scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founding-exec-team .claude/skills/founding-exec-team && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.
Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/
Install the "founding-exec-team" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founding-exec-team into .claude/skills/founding-exec-team/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founding-exec-team", then confirm the skill loads.Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$skill-installer install https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founding-exec-teamType this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founding-exec-team --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founding-exec-team .agents/skills/founding-exec-team && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "founding-exec-team" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founding-exec-team into .agents/skills/founding-exec-team/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founding-exec-team", then confirm the skill loads.Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founding-exec-team --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founding-exec-team .cursor/skills/founding-exec-team && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.
Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/
Install the "founding-exec-team" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founding-exec-team into .cursor/skills/founding-exec-team/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founding-exec-team", then confirm the skill loads.Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gemini skills install https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git --path skills/founding-exec-team--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founding-exec-team --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founding-exec-team .gemini/skills/founding-exec-team && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.
Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "founding-exec-team" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founding-exec-team into .gemini/skills/founding-exec-team/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founding-exec-team", then confirm the skill loads.Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founding-exec-teamInstalls for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founding-exec-team .github/skills/founding-exec-team && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.
GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "founding-exec-team" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founding-exec-team into .github/skills/founding-exec-team/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founding-exec-team", then confirm the skill loads.GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a opencodeOpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
$ gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills founding-exec-team --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/founding-exec-team .opencode/skills/founding-exec-team && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.
OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "founding-exec-team" agent skill from https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/main/skills/founding-exec-team into .opencode/skills/founding-exec-team/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "founding-exec-team", then confirm the skill loads.OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Facts
- Skill name
founding-exec-team- GitHub stars
- 1.4k
- Token cost
- ~1.4k tokens
- SKILL.md length
- 788 words
- Files
- 3 (incl. references)
- Skills in repo
- 76
- Repo updated
- First seen
- Licence
- MIT
At a glance
Help users recruit compatible co-founders, sequence early leadership hires to fill capability gaps, and manage the evolution of the executive team as the company scales.
- Works in 4 steps: Gap Analysis - Evaluate your current… → Equity Structuring - Provide frameworks… → Conflict Prevention - Guide the use of… → …
- SKILL.md covers How to Help, Core Principles, Questions to Help Users and Common Mistakes to Flag, plus 2 more sections
- Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
What it does
Founding Exec Team is an agent skill from RefoundAI/lenny-skills. Help users recruit compatible co-founders, sequence early leadership hires to fill capability gaps, and manage the evolution of the executive team as the company scales.
Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 3 other files, including reference files (for example `references/artifacts.md` and `references/guest-insights.md`).
The repository describes itself as: 86 product management skills from Lenny's Podcast for Claude Code and AI agents. Hiring, user research, strategy, shipping, and more. The licence is MIT.
Example prompts
- “/founding-exec-team”
Workflow steps
4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.
- Gap Analysis - Evaluate your current founding team's strengths and weaknesses to determine the most critical leadership hire.
- Equity Structuring - Provide frameworks for distributing equity among early co-founders and late-joining partners based on long-term impact.
- Conflict Prevention - Guide the use of 'founder prenups' and check-ins to surface and resolve interpersonal tensions before they scale.
- Scaling Transitions - Identify when and how to replace early-stage leaders with executives suited for larger organizational complexity.
What it can do on your machine
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 13598cc. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.
Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.
Context cost
Founding Exec Team loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs, and up to ~8.1k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 47 tokens; SKILL.md has 788 words of instructions outside code blocks.
Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.
Safety
Auto-check passed
The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.
Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.
SKILL.md
The full file from RefoundAI/lenny-skills at commit 13598cc, republished under its MIT licence (© RefoundAI). 788 words, ~1,410 tokens.
Download SKILL.mdSave it as
.claude/skills/founding-exec-team/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.- name
- founding-exec-team
- description
- Help users recruit compatible co-founders, sequence early leadership hires to fill capability gaps, and manage the evolution of the executive team as the company scales.
Founding Executive Team Building
Design and scale the core leadership layer that drives company growth from zero to one.
Help the user with founding executive team building using insights from 15 guests and posts across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter.
How to Help
- Gap Analysis - Evaluate your current founding team's strengths and weaknesses to determine the most critical leadership hire.
- Equity Structuring - Provide frameworks for distributing equity among early co-founders and late-joining partners based on long-term impact.
- Conflict Prevention - Guide the use of 'founder prenups' and check-ins to surface and resolve interpersonal tensions before they scale.
- Scaling Transitions - Identify when and how to replace early-stage leaders with executives suited for larger organizational complexity.
Core Principles
Sequence based on horsepower
From "Hiring your early team": "Over two-thirds of the companies hired an engineer as employee #1. Not a big surprise. In the rare case when an engineer wasn’t the first hire, it usually came down to the founding team having enough horsepower to build the V1."
Prioritize technical talent in your earliest hires unless the founding team already possesses the internal capacity to build the first version of the product independently.
Impact-driven equity
From "This Week #8: Splitting equity with late-joining co-founders, favorite roadmap templates, and small changes that improve your org": "If they’re a true cofounder, would you consider giving them equity starting around 10% of the company — all the way up to a share equal to yours? For a very early stage company, we see “late-arriving cofounders” all the time. Otherwise, senior engineers/founding team would usually receive 1-5% of the company. These are all averages and situations definitely differ."
Distribute equity for late-joining co-founders based on their projected long-term contribution to the company rather than just their start date.
Total organizational influence
Ben Horowitz: "Look, you're a really good director of engineering because you do a great job at managing the team, get the products out, all that. But you're not really a CTO because to be a CTO, you have to be effective with other parts of the organization. You can't just be effective only with engineering."
Measure an executive's success by their ability to collaborate effectively across the entire company rather than just managing their own functional silo.
Multi-founder preference
From "Pulling back the curtain on the magic of Y Combinator": "Solo founders are at a disadvantage. Although solo founders are encouraged, the data does show a steep decline in the number of them accepted to YC."
Recognize that while solo founding is possible, institutional investors and incubators show a statistical preference for teams with multiple co-founders.
Hands-on technical partnership
From "Summary: Lessons from working with 600+ YC startups | Gustaf Alströmer (Y Combinator, Airbnb)": "Contracting an engineering team to build the product doesn’t really work because you can’t spec your way to a great product; you have to be part of the iterations."
Treat technical co-founders as full mission partners because great products require continuous iteration that cannot be captured in static outsourcing specifications.
Show full SKILL.md (288 more words)Show less
Mission-driven cultural fit
From "Summary: Lessons from working with 600+ YC startups | Gustaf Alströmer (Y Combinator, Airbnb)": "The most important thing Airbnb looked for in early hires is how excited they were to be there. The second thing was to understand their true motivations and make sure they mapped to the company’s core values."
Screen your first leadership hires primarily for their level of genuine enthusiasm and alignment with the mission over their specific industry experience.
Questions to Help Users
- "What are the primary skill gaps in your current founding team that prevent you from reaching the next milestone?"
- "How have you tested the working relationship and values alignment with your potential co-founder?"
- "What specific high-leverage tasks do you find most draining that a new executive could own?"
- "Is your current leadership team capable of managing the complexity of the organization at double its current size?"
- "How are you structuring incentives to ensure late-joining leaders feel like owners rather than employees?"
Common Mistakes to Flag
- Hiring an idea person without technical execution - Products require continuous hands-on iteration that cannot be successfully outsourced or managed by someone who cannot build.
- Ignoring interpersonal tension early on - Unresolved founder conflict is a primary cause of early-stage company failure and becomes harder to fix as the team grows.
- Scaling the team before product-market fit - Excessive organizational overhead and management debt can kill agility during the crucial creative phase of a startup.
- Treating late-joining co-founders as standard employees - High-impact partners require significant equity and a sense of true ownership to navigate the long-term challenges of a growing company.
Deep Dive
For all 8 sourced insights from 15 guests, see references/guest-insights.md
Related Skills
- Hiring Product Talent
- Interviewing Evaluating Candidates
- Org Design
- Building Growth Team
© RefoundAI, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file
Files
SKILL.md and 2 other files (references) in skills/founding-exec-team of RefoundAI/lenny-skills.
- SKILL.md
- references/artifacts.md
- references/guest-insights.md
Open the folder on GitHubat commit 13598cc
Compare with similar skills
Founding Exec Team next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.
| Skill | Stars | Used in | Tokens | Auto-check | Licence | Repo updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founding Exec Team this skillRefoundAI/lenny-skills | 1.4k | — | ~1.4k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Idea Refinementaddyosmani/agent-skills | 103k | 6 repos | ~2k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| HTML PPT Studiolewislulu/html-ppt-skill | 8.6k | 4 repos | ~4.7k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Agent Browserquran/quran.com-frontend-next | 1.9k | 42 repos | ~3.3k | Automated safety check: Pass | None | |
| Process Inboxtelegramdesktop/tdesktop | 33k | 2 repos | ~4.5k | Automated safety check: Pass | GPL-3.0 | |
| Brag Launch Videolatent-spaces/brag | 14k | 1 repos | ~2.3k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT |
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Questions about Founding Exec Team
What does Founding Exec Team do?
Help users recruit compatible co-founders, sequence early leadership hires to fill capability gaps, and manage the evolution of the executive team as the company scales. Founding Exec Team is an agent skill from RefoundAI/lenny-skills. Help users recruit compatible co-founders, sequence early leadership hires to fill capability gaps, and manage the evolution of the executive team as the company scales.
How do I install Founding Exec Team in Claude Code?
Run `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/founding-exec-team in RefoundAI/lenny-skills) into .claude/skills/founding-exec-team in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
How do I install Founding Exec Team in Codex?
Run `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/founding-exec-team in RefoundAI/lenny-skills) into .agents/skills/founding-exec-team in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Can I use Founding Exec Team in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?
Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill founding-exec-team -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/founding-exec-team, .gemini/skills/founding-exec-team, .github/skills/founding-exec-team and .opencode/skills/founding-exec-team in your project.
What does Founding Exec Team need to run?
SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Founding Exec Team is instructions for the agent only.
Does Founding Exec Team access the network?
SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.
Is Founding Exec Team safe to install?
Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.
What licence does Founding Exec Team use?
Founding Exec Team is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.
How many tokens does Founding Exec Team use?
About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.6k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 6.7k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.
What are the alternatives to Founding Exec Team?
Skills that share tags, products or a category with Founding Exec Team: Idea Refinement (addyosmani/agent-skills, 103k stars), HTML PPT Studio (lewislulu/html-ppt-skill, 8.6k stars), Agent Browser (quran/quran.com-frontend-next, 1.9k stars) and Process Inbox (telegramdesktop/tdesktop, 33k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
Who maintains Founding Exec Team?
RefoundAI (a GitHub organization) maintains it in RefoundAI/lenny-skills, which has 1,377 GitHub stars. The repository holds 76 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on July 16, 2026.
Source: RefoundAI/lenny-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.