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.

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