Pros and cons of combining spouses as co-founders

I have a good idea of ​​how cooperation between startup co-founders works, but I was always curious what the relationship would look like if the co-founders were also a couple. Being the founder of an early-stage startup is hard enough, but imagine the added pressure of having a co-founder who is also your life partner. Does this make it any easier? Who wears the decision-making hat at work and does the couple swap hats at home? Do they step on each other’s toes at work? It’s actually not uncommon – there are several successful Indian startups co-founded by couples, including Sugar Cosmetics, Chumbak, Mobikwik, Mamaearth and MadDen.

A few days ago, I spoke to Archana Stalin, co-founder of Chennai-based MyHarvest Farms, where she grows healthy, organic and chemical-free food. She has impressive credentials, including an engineering degree from the College of Engineering, Guindy and a management degree from IIM Bangalore under Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women Entrepreneurs program. Her co-founder at MyHarvest Farms is her husband, Stalin.

According to Archana, when it comes to having your spouse as a co-founder, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. First, their relationship makes it easy to understand things quickly, without the many explanations that may be needed when dealing with other co-founders. Employees treat them as separate units, not as a single entity. Sometimes, when a couple disagrees on something, they do get into arguments with other team members, but they make sure the discussions stay focused on the topic. Archana and Stalin clearly delineated roles and responsibilities between them in the workplace; depending on the domain, one of them is the final decision maker and all the others defer to it. Archana also noted that they can share opinions and teachings with each other without any ego issues.

One of the biggest disadvantages of the spouse-co-founder relationship is that it is too easy to bring work home. Late night conversations can quickly turn into office conversations and before they know it, they are at home putting out fires in the office, which is unhealthy. An interesting fact that Archana noticed was that sometimes she is not sure whether she is talking to her co-founder or her spouse and whether the answers are coming from a personal or professional perspective.

I asked if she had a choice, would she do it differently? She emphatically declared that she had no regrets and that they both enjoyed building their startup together. He ends with a rather interesting reflection: “After so many years, we both fully agree on the “what” and “why” of our business. Yet we still argue about the “how.”

(The writer is a serial entrepreneur and best-selling author of Failure to Succeed; posts on X @vaitheek)