Take the first founder out for a month and the business keeps running. Take the second founder out and deals freeze, the team hesitates, and everything waits for her to come back.
Same hours. Different structure.
Independence stays comfortable as long as it's a feeling. The moment you put a number on it, it gets honest.
Ten questions. Five minutes. Answer for the business as it runs today, not the one you're building toward.
Built from the Founder Independence methodology. Herb Cogliano, Certified Scaling Up Coach, CEPA, 2x founder.
Question 1 of 10
Select an answer to continue
Your score is ready.
Where should the full read go? You'll get your score, the one or two constraints holding it down, and the first move to make.
No list rental. No sequence you can't leave. One email with your result.
Your Founder Independence Score
This measures founder dependency. It is a separate instrument from the Three Gates assessment, which scores Business Readiness, Owner Readiness, and Market Attractiveness against their own bar.
0out of 100
QuicksandThe 1/5 Standard
The pattern underneath the score
Two founders can score the same and have opposite problems. This is where yours sits.
What pulled it down
Your two lowest answers, in your own words.
Your diagnosis
Do this first
Do not do this yet
What it is costing you
Your first working session
You leave with
What comes next
Business and Owner Readiness
Independence is what you control. Saleability is what the market decides, and the two are related without being the same thing.
Business Readiness and Owner Readiness are scored through a formal saleability assessment. It is deliberately an outside process, because the whole point is a buyer's lens rather than your own, and no founder can apply that lens to the company they built. It is Certified Exit Planning Advisor work, and it is what I do.
You are further along than most founders ever get. That is exactly when this conversation is worth having, while you still have leverage and time, rather than when a buyer opens diligence and sets the timetable for you.
Herb Cogliano · Certified Exit Planning Advisor · herb@aspiregrowthadvisors.com
You're testing this. Two questions.
Which question was hardest to answer, and did the score match your gut before you started?
Tap below, then paste it into your reply to Herb.
Founder Independence is the full architecture behind this diagnostic: the three leadership roles every founder-led business must fill, the decision rights, the guardrails that make autonomy safe, and the 90-day maturation sequence that transfers authority without shock.