Founding Team
The founding team sets the culture, security practices, and trust foundation for your entire cell. Choose carefully and build intentionally.
Who Should Be on the Founding Team?
Essential Qualities
Deep mutual trust
- You've known each other for years, not months
- You've seen each other under stress
- You would trust them with sensitive information today
Shared values
- Committed to protecting vulnerable community members
- Understanding of why security practices matter
- Alignment on principles (even if tactics differ)
Capacity
- Time to commit — this is ongoing work
- Emotional capacity — this work is heavy
- Stability — not in personal crisis right now
Security mindset
- Willing to change habits for security
- Not prone to oversharing
- Takes digital security seriously
Helpful (Not Required) Qualities
- Connections to the community you'll serve
- Organizing or logistics experience
- Legal knowledge or connections
- Technical skills (for communication infrastructure)
- Multiple languages
How Many Founders?
Minimum: 3 people
- Enough for redundancy
- No single point of failure
- Can make decisions when one is unavailable
Ideal: 4-5 people
- Distributed workload
- Multiple perspectives
- Room for different strengths
Maximum: 7 people
- More than this becomes unwieldy for founding phase
- Others can join as first members after foundation is set
Founding Team Commitments
Before starting, all founders should explicitly agree to:
- Confidentiality: What's discussed stays within the team
- Security practices: Follow all OpSec requirements without exception
- Time commitment: Be available for initial setup (heavier) and ongoing coordination
- Conflict resolution: How will you handle disagreements?
- Exit process: What happens if someone needs to leave?
First Founding Meeting
Your first meeting should:
1. Confirm Commitment
Go around: Is everyone ready for this? Any reservations?
2. Review Core Principles
Read through Core Principles together. Discuss any questions.
3. Complete Security Training Together
Go through Security Handbook as a group. Set up Signal together.
4. Assess Community Needs
- What threats is the community facing?
- What's most urgently needed?
- What capacity exists already?
5. Define Initial Structure
- Which segments to start?
- Who takes which steward roles initially?
- How will you communicate?
6. Set Next Steps
- When do you meet again?
- What does each person do before then?
- When do you start vouching in new members?
Distributing Steward Roles
Initially, founders will hold all steward roles. Distribute based on strengths:
| Role | Good Fit For |
|---|---|
| Segment Lead | Organized, good with people, can manage logistics |
| Onboarding Steward | Good judge of character, patient, security-minded |
| Communications Steward | Technical skills, detail-oriented, security-focused |
| Logistics Coordinator | Systems thinker, can see big picture, organized |
One person may hold multiple roles at first. Plan to distribute as you grow.
Founder Agreements Template
Consider documenting:
- Our shared principles
- Our commitment to security practices
- How we make decisions (consensus? majority?)
- How we handle conflicts
- How we handle a founder leaving
- How we handle a security breach
- When and how we meet
This doesn't need to be formal — but explicit agreement prevents problems later.
Red Flags in Potential Founders
Do not include someone who:
- You've only known a short time
- Has a history of breaking confidences
- Is dismissive of security practices
- Is seeking a leadership position
- Is in active crisis (they should be supported, not founding)
- Makes you hesitate when you imagine trusting them fully
Trust your gut. If something feels off, it probably is.