Lead Republic
Where Chris started
Funnel Empire was delivering work for clients. The co-founders had strong talent and a growing reputation. And the business was bottlenecked at every point.
There was no onboarding process. No formal project management. And the co-founders had fundamentally different ideas about where the business should go — one wanted to scale aggressively, the other wanted to build sustainably.
In Chris’s words: “We knew we had to start working in a more scalable way. While we were getting results for the customers we worked with, there were bottlenecks behind the scenes and it wasn’t sustainable.”
The real problem
Competing directions in a co-founder relationship means every major decision becomes a negotiation. Pricing decisions, hiring decisions, capacity decisions — all of them filtered through two different futures.
The lack of systems compounded it. Without documented processes, adding team members just meant more people needing the founders’ attention.
What we worked on
Getting both founders honest about direction. The critical early conversation wasn’t about tactics — it was about where each person wanted to go and whether those destinations were compatible.
Onboarding and workflow systems. Procedures so team members could operate without the founders managing every detail.
The separation. When it became clear the directions were genuinely incompatible, the work shifted to an amicable split — dividing the business 50/50 so each founder could pursue their own vision cleanly.
Where things ended up
Funnel Empire separated. Chris launched Lead Republic, a digital marketing agency focused on predictable, scalable campaigns. It went on to win industry awards.
In Chris’s words: “Tristan is a phenomenal person to have in your corner. He has your best interest at heart and offers unbiased, practical advice and will support and encourage you no matter what. I’m in a great place and working towards achieving my purpose. I would never have guessed this is what would happen — but with Tristan’s guidance, I knew it would be the right thing for me.”
"Tristan solidified the problems we were facing based on what I told him and what he observed. He was direct and concise but supportive."
— Chris Murphy, Lead Republic
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