The act of establishing or creating an organization, company, or institution together with other people.
Present participle of cofound from co- + founding (from found). Describes the ongoing or recent process of joint establishment.
The cofounding phase is often mythologized in startup culture—two people in a garage drinking coffee and coding—but the reality usually involves lawyers, investors, and messy disagreements about equity from day one.
'Founding' roles have been historically attributed to men even when women were equal partners; 'cofounding' language can obscure women's equal agency in establishment.
When describing cofounding, name all founders explicitly and equally. Do not use 'cofounding' as shorthand that erases women's visible participation.
["co-establishing","jointly founding"]
Women's founding acts—in business, science, activism, and institutions—must be narrated with their names and roles visible, not hidden in 'co-' terminology.
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