Lauren Jane Heller, one of our lume coaches, says it perfectly... When founders say "my cofounder is the problem" — that's usually where the real work begins. Yes, the other person may be contributing to the dysfunction. But the leverage point is always how *you're* showing up. Are you communicating clearly? Are you leading, or still operating as an individual contributor? Are you taking responsibility for your part — without taking on more than is yours? That shift from IC to leader is one of the hardest transitions in early-stage companies. And cofounder conflict is often a symptom of it not happening yet. Agency isn't about blame. It's about recognizing what you actually have the power to change.
lume
Professional Training and Coaching
Los Angeles, California 2,050 followers
The founder performance lab, combining coaching, diagnostics, and health science to help you scale without breaking.
About us
lume is a performance lab for early-stage founders. We combine operator-led coaching, data-driven diagnostics, and integrated health optimization to help founders think clearer, execute faster, and sustain high performance under pressure. Built for those who treat building a company as a full-stack performance problem.
- Website
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www.join-lume.com
External link for lume
- Industry
- Professional Training and Coaching
- Company size
- 2-10 employees
- Headquarters
- Los Angeles, California
- Type
- Privately Held
- Founded
- 2024
- Specialties
- Leadership, Coaching, Executive, Transformation, Career, Nutrition, Health, Sleep, Fitness / Exercise, Communication, Relationships, and Professional development
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
Los Angeles, California 90272, US
Employees at lume
Updates
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Sometimes clarity isn’t about having more information. At lume, we help founders see hesitation is often discomfort. And that insight speeds up decisions.
“I just need more clarity” We hear this a lot at lume. Most of the time it’s not confusion. It’s discomfort. One founder kept reworking the same plan same inputs, same options, just buying time. One of our coaches said it best: “They’re not confused. They’re uncomfortable.” Once they noticed that, decisions started taking only 10 minutes.
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Small shifts in work, recovery, and emotional habits make a big impact over time. lume shows you how to make them stick.
One founder told us: “I make all the calls when I’m sharp… and all the mistakes when I’m tired” We tracked their energy + focus for a week. Turns out most “urgent” calls happened when they were mentally drained. Once they started noticing the dips, pausing, and delegating a bit, the mistakes dropped, deals closed faster, and they didn’t burn out. Tiny changes in when you work, how you recover, and how you regulate emotion make massive differences over time. 📄 Study on cognitive performance: https://lnkd.in/eH9XBpg8
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Being proactive can feel productive, but a lot of the time it’s just a way to calm your own nervous system. We see it happen all the time at lume.
a lot of what we call “being proactive” is really just founders trying to calm themselves down. we’re seeing this at lume a lot lately. something feels a little off, or just slightly unclear, so they go into “solution-mode” not because anything is actually failing. but because being out of the loop feels uncomfortable. a lot of our coaches report that they help their clients slow down. it’s rarely about the work itself. sometimes the only intervention needed is... pause. process. then act.
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Tools and frameworks are easy. Changing how you show up is hard. That’s where lume comes in.
The latest PwC CEO survey says leaders spend 47% of their time on short-term fires. Basically, half our brainpower is trapped in the next 12 months. The logs at lume show why. Most founders aren't "bad at strategy." They’re just dysregulated. When you’re redlining, every Slack notification feels like a 5-year crisis. One founder in our Core Lab put it best: "I thought I had a time management problem. I actually had a nervous system problem." The real performance unlock isn't a new AI tool. It's finding solutions to move away from working in your business to working on it. The numbers: https://lnkd.in/e_hgUtyr
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Your brain defaults to habit under stress, making the easy choice feel natural. lume helps founders notice this pattern before it takes over.
i was reading this 2025 study about how stress basically turns your brain into a creature of habit. when you're redlined, you lose the ability to find creative solutions. you start making the "easy" call instead of the right call because habits are just cheaper for a stressed brain to run. i see this all the time among our founders who think they’ve "lost their edge" because they’re snapping at vps or sticking to failing strategies. they think it’s a discipline problem when it’s not. it’s a regulation problem. if you're in survival mode, you aren't leading. you're just repeating your past. you’re just paying a high performance tax for a habitual outcome. let us know if we can help. The science: https://lnkd.in/ev6HyWnz
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Most barriers aren’t money or a plan. They’re identity. We help people start confidently when the skills are already there, the way we do at lume.
we were working with alba montana recently and she said something that really stuck with me. "i can feel this company inside me. help me not kill it too early." she was working at cvs and had this massive career, but she was stuck at the edge of the diving board. most people think the barrier to starting is a lack of a plan or money. usually it is just identity debt. she was afraid of being selfish. afraid of losing stability. at lume, we didn't give her a framework. we just gave her a safe place to untangle that fear and practice being a founder before she even quit. we’ve noticed that performance isn't always about moving faster. in most cases, it’s about giving yourself permission to jump when you already know how to swim. the full story: https://lnkd.in/eiMxSKbG
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This is a big part of how we think at lume. Less about adding tactics, more about understanding patterns.
i get asked for "hacks" all the time. 3 tips for focus. 5 steps for sleep. honestly, i hate that stuff. hacks are just expensive band-aids for wounds that need actual stitches. it’s like putting a fresh coat of paint on a house with a cracked foundation. in our lab, we’re just looking for the cracks. why does your energy crater at 3 pm? why are you snapping at your team? why is your brain still "on" at 2 am? you don’t hack your way out of those things. you diagnose them. you look at the data and the patterns. one of our founders said it best: "i realized i was trying to optimize a machine i didn't even understand yet." it’s way less sexy than a "top 10" list. but it’s the only thing that actually sticks when the pressure turns up.
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Small changes in how you structure your attention often have the biggest impact. At lume, we see founders unlock clarity by tackling the invisible clutter first.
Every time you switch tasks, your brain takes a hit. Most founders don’t realize how much energy they lose in a day. I just read a post from Brain.fm about founders using audio to extend peak focus. The tech is interesting. But the real insight is simpler. Small shifts in how you structure your attention change the quality of your decisions. At lume, we see the same thing. It’s about clearing the invisible mental clutter before it compounds. Productivity isn’t about hours. It’s about how you use the ones you already have.
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This is exactly why lume exists, to help you spot what you can’t see when you’re too deep in it.
You probably don’t notice the little things that slow you down. The habits, the shortcuts, the stuff that eats your energy without you even realizing it. The small routines, tiny systems, and little scheduling adjustments. In many cases, changing a few of the small things have the greatest impact. A good coach can spot this and be your guide to change them. If you’re coach curious, feel free to dm me!