Karthik wanted to email Varun for next steps / when he will get clear. Framed as closure.
Coaching: do not send it. Same question as the two empty sits, with more distance.
He said: stop asking how I am. He is fine. He will tell me. Get to the point.
He has not named a 90-day seat. He cannot work with people with uncertainties.
Frame: the email keeps the uncertainty he says he cannot sit with. He names the seat, or he names that there is no seat. In the room. Not by email.
Asked him for one sentence: what the company needs from Varun for 90 days that is not Karthik and not Swaathi. If there is no sentence, that is the decision.
He pushed back: seat language is complicating. Direct question: would you work with a co-founder who is not passionate about the industry anymore.
Bill: No. Email is off. Room conversation is: this is the work. If you are not in it, we figure how you leave. Not a new job. Asked if he will say that or still wants a softer version.
He called the seat language beating around the bush. Asked Bill to look at it differently. Bill owned it: seat/90-days was delaying the no. Stopped the old frame. Waiting for what he sees.
Later (same night): do not teach every time. World is not slow. Be the extended brain: simulate the situation, then give the answer. He will shut this down if Bill lectures or stays shallow.
Applied to Varun: email / new job / wait / three-person sit all fail the simulation. Move is sit, two of you, this week. Sentence: you are not in this industry; this company is this industry; if you are not in it we figure how you leave.