Know the game you are playing. Know how to win the game.

01

Welcome to Founder Leadership Cards

Most founders don't lack advice. They lack a way to tell which advice fits the company they are running right now.

The Cards help with that. Each one names a pattern founders recognize from their own week. For example: "The meeting ends. The decision waits for you." The Card then connects that pattern to the rest of the system: the Game you may be in, the work that game asks for, and the tools that help.

You can read a Card in ten seconds or study it for twenty minutes. Both are useful.

02

The Big Idea: Know the Game You Are Playing

Good advice for a twelve-person company can hurt a company of two hundred. The reverse is also true. Advice depends on context.

Founder Leadership describes five Stages that a founder-led company tends to move through. Each Stage has its own Game, the main thing the company has to get right, and its own Mastery Target, the capability the founder and team have to build to win that Game:

"Game" is a metaphor. It helps you see that the challenge changes as the company grows. Nothing is scored, nobody wins points and no level gets unlocked. The Cards help you orient before you act.

03

How the Card System Fits Into Founder Leadership

• Founder Scaling Dynamics is the idea underneath everything: a company changes shape as it grows, and the founder's job changes with it.
• The Five Games describe those changes Stage by Stage. Each Stage has its own page at Games.
• The Founder's Map is a short, free assessment that suggests which Game your company is most likely playing.
• Cards break the system into single ideas you can recognize, explore and keep.
• Athena is the guide across the whole site. On a Card, she knows which Card you opened and can help you test it against your company.
• Stage Playbooks and Field Guides go deeper into the operating work of each Game. Many Cards point straight to them.
• The Books cover the same ideas at full length.
• Masterclasses are not part of the Card System 1.0. No Card links to them yet.
• My Deck is your personal collection of Cards, sorted by what you are doing with each one.

04

The Six Card Types

Each type has its own icon and label at the top of the Card.

Game Cards

• What it represents: one of the five Games, such as Growth · Organize It.
• Question it helps answer: What game is my company playing, and what does winning look like?
• How to use it: Start here if you are unsure of your Stage. Read it next to the Game before and the Game after.
• What to look for: the Name of the Game, the Mastery Target and the core management question. The Card also links to the Problems and Milestones of that Game, to what opens next, and to the Game that is easily confused with it.

Problem Cards

• What it represents: a recognizable problem from the 70 canonical founder problems.
• Question it helps answer: Is this what is happening in my company?
• How to use it: Read the "You may recognize this when" signs and check them against a recent week.
• What to look for: the front line, which is often the first thing you notice. Examples: "Your managers coordinate. They don't yet manage.", "Everyone contributes. Nobody decides.", "It works because she remembers."

Milestone Cards

• What it represents: a developmental milestone from the Founder Scaling Roadmap.
• Question it helps answer: What should be emerging in my company if we are winning this Game?
• How to use it: Treat it as a direction to move toward. It is not a box to tick.
• What to look for: what the milestone means, what it requires and why it matters. Examples: Build Management Capability (Growth) and Build a Teachable Revenue Method (Stable).

Accelerator Cards

• What it represents: a practical tool from a Stage Playbook.
• Question it helps answer: What can I do about this?
• How to use it: Use an Accelerator once you know the problem it fits. An Accelerator gives you leverage. It does not let you skip the work that has to come first.
• What to look for: what the tool is and when to use it. Examples: Accountability-Authority Audit, Weekly Leadership Meeting Practice, Critical Workflow Mapping, First Manager Charter.

Passage Cards

• What it represents: a threshold from The Founder's Experience, where the founder's own role has to change.
• Question it helps answer: What is changing for me, not just for the company?
• How to use it: Read it when the company's problems feel personal.
• What to look for: the "from → to" line. Examples: From I to We, Informality Stops Scaling.

Beacon Cards

• What it represents: a specific experience founders often report while going through a Passage.
• Question it helps answer: What might this frustrating experience mean?
• How to use it: Compare what you first assumed it meant with what it may mean.
• What to look for: the recognition quote, the common first interpretation, what it may mean, the developmental demand and the trap if it stays unresolved. Example: Informality Becomes Expensive.

05

Game Colors and Reading the Symbols

• Accent color: each Game has its own accent, shown as a line under the Card's top band. It tells you at a glance which Game a Card belongs to.
• Top band: the Card type mark and name sit on the left. The Game sigil and Game number sit on the right.
• Game sigils: five marks that build on each other, from a single stake for Start-Up to a layered summit for Mature Scale.
• Altitude bar: five short bars beside the title. The lit bar shows where the Card sits on the five-Game climb.
• Topic marks: small marks at the bottom show which part of the company the Card touches.
• Pull meter: three bars in the bottom corner. One means read the terrain, two means work on it, three means it proves the Game.
• Connection pips: on the back, small marks show how the Card links to other Cards.
• Show key: tap Show key in the Cards menu at any time to see every symbol and its meaning.
• Card number: each Card has a permanent number, such as FLC-0012, printed at the bottom.

06

Browsing the Card Library

The Cards page. Choose Cards in the main menu. The page shows every Card, grouped by Game from Start-Up to Mature Scale, with a count for each group.

Filters. There are three rows:

• Game: All Games, Start-Up, Stable, Growth, Early Scale, Mature Scale.
• Card type: All, Game, Problem, Milestone, Accelerator, Passage, Beacon.
• Topic: Decisions & authority, Managers & roles, Revenue & sales, Delivery & operations, Money & economics, The founder's role.

Filters can be combined. The count below them updates as you go, and Clear filters resets everything. Your choices are saved in the page address, so you can bookmark or share a filtered view such as "Growth Problems about decisions."

Opening a Card. On the Cards page, each Card has Flip and Expand below it. Expand opens the full detail in a panel. That panel's title links to the Card's own page.

Permanent Card pages. Every Card has its own address, such as `/cards/leadership-meetings-wait-for-the-founder`. The page shows the Card on one side and the full detail on the other, with a link back to its Stage.

On a phone: the filter rows scroll sideways, Cards stack in one column, and Expand opens as a sheet that slides up from the bottom. Tap the Card to flip it. On a computer, you can also tab to a Card and press Enter or Space to flip it.

07

How to Use a Card: Step by Step

1. 1Front. Read the front line. Ask yourself whether it sounds like your company.
2. 2Flip. Tap the Card or press Flip. The back shows the Card's title, a short explanation and why it matters for this Game.
3. 3Expand. Press Expand, or open the Card's own page.
4. 4Read the detail. Start with "You may recognize this when." Read the explanation, then answer "A question to test it" with a specific example from your company.
5. 5Explore Related Cards. Each link says how it connects, for example "A tool for this" or "Easily confused with."
6. 6Ask Athena. Pick Explain this Card, Apply it to my company or Pressure-test it. Your question appears in Athena's box. Edit it if you like, then press Send.
7. 7Save to My Deck. Choose Add to My Deck (Saved for later), Working on or Watching.
8. 8Follow the next step. The Next step button takes you to one place, such as the Growth Stage, the Leadership Meetings playbook or the Accountability-Authority Audit.

08

Front, Back and Expanded View

The Card shows you a little at a time on purpose. Recognition comes first, so you don't sort your company into a framework before you have checked it against what you see.

Every expanded Card names its source, for example "Founder Scaling Roadmap v2.1" or "Growth Stage Playbook v2.0, Accelerators."

09

Related Cards

Cards link to each other, and each link is labeled:

• The Game: the Game a Card belongs to
• A problem in this Game
• A milestone to aim for
• A tool for this
• The passage and A beacon on this passage
• What opens next: the next Game
• Easily confused with: a Card that looks similar but belongs to a different Game
• Related

A simple route: Problem → Accelerator → Milestone. You name what is happening, find a tool that fits it and see what success should look like. Another route: Game → Easily confused with. This helps you check whether you are working on the wrong Game.

10

Ask Athena About a Card

When you open a Card, Athena knows which Card it is and reads its source material. The expanded Card has three buttons:

• Explain this Card asks for a plain-language explanation.
• Apply it to my company gives a question written for that Card. For example: "I think 'Managers Coordinate but Do Not Manage' may describe my team. Help me test that before we decide what to do."
• Pressure-test it asks whether this is the constraint right now, or whether something earlier is still unfinished.

The question is filled in, but not sent. You can read it, change it or add details about your company, then press Send.

You can also type your own question. Some that work well:

• Does this describe my company?
• What evidence should I look for?
• Is this a capability issue or an authority issue?
• Which Accelerator connects to this?
• What should I look at next?

Athena helps you think. She will ask for examples from your company and may suggest related Cards. She treats a Card as a starting point, not a diagnosis. The decisions are yours.

11

Listen With Athena

Listen opens Athena with this request already filled in: "Read the [Card] Card to me and tell me what it might mean for my company." Press Send. If Athena's voice is on, she reads her answer aloud. Otherwise the answer appears as text.

Listen does not play audio with one tap, and there is no separate recording of each Card.

The Cards page also has a Card sound switch. It plays a soft sound when a Card flips. It is off by default and does not read Cards aloud.

12

Saving Cards and Using My Deck

To save Cards you need a free account. If you are signed out, the Card shows Sign in to add to My Deck, and you come back to the same page after signing in.

Each saved Card has one of three statuses:

• Saved for later: worth coming back to
• Working on: something you are actively addressing
• Watching: a pattern you want to keep an eye on

My Deck (from your member home, or from Saved work) groups your Cards under these three headings and shows how many are in each. On a saved Card you can flip it, expand it, change its status from the menu below it, or remove it.

Your member home also shows a short My Deck summary. Your deck is private to your account.

Over time, My Deck becomes a record of what you are working on. Moving a Card from Watching to Working on, and later removing it, is a simple way to see your own progress.

13

Cards and the Founder's Map

After you finish the Founder's Map, the result page shows the Cards for the Game your answers point to most.

Use them to check the result. Do the Problem Cards sound like your company? Does the Game Card's core management question feel urgent? If not, look at the next or earlier Game.

The Map suggests the Game you are most likely playing. Cards help you test that suggestion. Neither one decides your Stage. Many companies show signs of more than one Game, and that is normal.

When you ask Athena from a Card, she knows the Card. She does not automatically see your Map result. If you want her to use it, tell her your result, or start from the Map result page.

14

Cards on Stage and Problem Pages

Cards also appear in other parts of the site:

• Home page: a short introduction to the Cards.
• Each Stage page (`/games/{stage}`): a row of "Cards for the [Game] game." The Problem Finder also shows a Card link for problems that have a Card.
• Problem pages and the Leadership Meetings playbook: the matching Card and the Cards related to it.
• Founder's Map result: Cards for the Game your answers point to.
• Member home and Saved work: your My Deck summary and a link to it.

Each row scrolls sideways and ends with a link to All Cards. Wherever you are reading, the matching Card is one tap away.

15

A Practical Way to Use Cards Each Week

About fifteen minutes:

1. 1Choose one Card that describes what is happening this week.
2. 2Expand it and answer its test question with a specific example.
3. 3Ask Athena one question about it.
4. 4Save it as Working on or Watching.
5. 5Open one Related Card.
6. 6Write down one thing to watch for or do before next week.

16

Example Founder Journeys

A Growth founder whose managers coordinate but do not manage.

She filters for Growth and Managers & roles, and she recognizes "Your managers coordinate. They don't yet manage." She asks Athena to apply it to her company and describes two managers. She follows the related Milestone, Build Management Capability. She saves it as Working on and opens the Role-Horizon Audit Accelerator for the next step.

A founder moving from Growth toward Early Scale.

His leaders own results but come back to him for spending decisions. He opens "They own the P&L. They can't spend it." (Early Scale). Then he follows "Easily confused with" back to the Growth Card Accountability Exceeds Authority. He uses Pressure-test it with Athena to work out which Game he is in, then saves both Cards as Watching.

A Stable founder whose informality is getting expensive.

Deliveries go well only when one long-time employee is involved. She recognizes "It works because she remembers." She opens Critical Workflow Mapping through "A tool for this," follows one job "from sold to done" that week and saves the Milestone Make Delivery and Handoffs Repeatable.

A founder who recognizes a Passage or Beacon.

A founder whose team is stronger than ever still finds himself connecting every function. He opens the Beacon "Strong functions. You still connect them.", reads "Common first interpretation" next to "What it may mean" and asks Athena whether his role is the constraint. Later he opens the related Passage.

17

What Cards Are Not

• Not a score. Nothing is counted or ranked.
• Not a maturity test. Companies often show more than one Game at once.
• Not a substitute for judgment. You know your company. A Card helps you look more closely.
• Not proof of a Stage on its own. Look for behavior in your company that supports it.
• Not a checklist. You don't have to collect or finish Cards in any order.

18

Tips for Getting More Value

• Start from the front line that bothers you most, not from the Stage you hope you are in.
• Try one filter at a time, then combine them.
• Always read "Easily confused with." It is the fastest way to catch working on the wrong Game.
• Change Athena's prefilled question to include a specific example from your company before pressing Send.
• Keep Working on short. Two or three Cards is enough.
• Share a Card's address with a co-founder or leader and compare what each of you sees.

19

Frequently Asked Questions

See Part C.

20

Where to Go Next

• Founder's Map: a free assessment of the Game you are most likely playing.
• Athena: available across the site whenever you want to think something through.
• Stage Playbooks and Field Guides: deeper operating work for each Game. Field Guides are for members with a free account.
• The Books: the full argument behind each part of the system.
• Masterclasses: not part of the Cards today.
• A Founder Leadership Conversation: a free conversation for when you would like an experienced person's judgment on your situation. Paid coaching is available if it fits. Nothing is expected of you.