Thinking about starting a company with your significant other?
Andrew (@a13n) and I have been working on Canny together for a while now. We've also been in a relationship the whole time. We travel the world while we work and we've started growing the team. People often seem surprised by how we've been able to make it work.
I'm thinking we should just write a blog post about it. Is this interesting? Any questions we should address?
I would be interested in learning about the roles each of you plays in the business, how you deal with conflicts, and how your work/life split is affected by working with your partner.
Conflicts are a big one we'll definitely cover. Not unique to couple founders either. Thanks Joshua!
HI Sarah,
I requested this before, it should be a cool article: I love your previous articles. Some questions:
I would love to learn about your experience of the nomadic lifestyle?
How do you stay focused and effective on the road?
What's your work set-up, how do you handle ergonomics - small screen all day etc?
Which countries are particularly friendly to nomads, which did you have a bad experience with?
Does the novelty of travel ware off?
How do you regulate/ensure quality from remote staff?
Just some ideas.
P.S Did hiring a content marketer work out? I recall being skeptical about that.
Relevant piece that Andrew wrote: https://canny.io/blog/productive-without-office
Hi there! Sounds like more of a travel/nomad article but these are great questions. We'll add these to the list!
Re: content marketer. You remembered! It didn't 😊we'll write about that as well.
Cool, I'm looking forward to it.
I recall my thinking with the content marketer, was that your branding was too personal to outsource. It's hard for someone else to have as much passion as yourselves.
Yeah, I think that was a small part of it. There were other issues that lead us to our decision. Will try to put it all in words 😊
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Hi Sarah, absolutely. I'd love to read about your blog post on how you started Canny with Andrew.
I posted an article about power struggle of bootstrapping as a couple earlier this year as I was traveling in Asia with Chris while working on CozyCal (https://www.indiehackers.com/@Kat/the-power-struggle-of-bootstrapping-as-a-couple-e53e9aea44). So, I'd love to hear
As a couple, how do you balance personal life with your professional endeavour?
When you are in conflicts, how do you resolve them?
Is traveling the world while working on a growing SaaS business a sustainable way to live?
Look forward to reading your story!
Hey Kat! Thanks for these. I read your article back when you posted it and thought it was a great, honest look into your life. I'll ping you if we need some supporting advice 😊
I'd be interested to know: How long were you together before you began the company? & any pros or cons (in your experience) around how the length of time you've been in a relationship may impact the dynamics (of the personal or business situation)...
& in what ways has working together enhanced (or detracted from) your personal relationship?
I am in the same situation, I co-founded Secure Nest with my wife. When we first began working together we had been a couple for 12 years and married for 5. It hasn't always been easy, but I think the stability and length of our personal relationship probably helped to avoid business difficulties negatively impacting on personal life. But undoubtedly no couple is the same, so YMMV.
Hey Joseph, these are great, thanks for putting some thought in.
12 years is a while! We're coming up on 5 years. I think I share the same sentiment—not always easy but there are definitely pros as well. Thanks for your perspective! I may reach out if/when we put this piece together.
No worries, would be happy to help.
This is beautiful. I'm curious to know how you two met, and how you decided to start a company together. Though that's more out of the realm of the day to day life of running a company as a couple.
Nice, that would be good context to include. Thanks Dmitri 😊
Blog post and AMA.
AMA sounds fun! Thanks Emeka
I am in a similar position, and one question that's come up for me a lot is how co-founders being in a relationship impacts fundraising. I know there are some folks out there who have a very negative view of couples starting a business together. Others may feel differently. I wonder if, and when, you share your relationship with potential business partners, VCs, etc.
I'd love to read a post about this. Particularly - do you and Andrew deliberately try to spend time apart? Do you try for a clear separation of work and personal, or does everything blend together?
My girlfriend and I have been in business together for 5 years now (together for 6.5), and we're just now consciously trying to spend more time apart. I'm wondering if you two have experienced anything like this, and if so, how it's working!
Seems like you're doing it right! 5 years is a long time. This is a great question, thanks!
What makes it work?
Is there anything that if it were different, it wouldn't work?
Does someone have the final say on certain things or do y'all typically get to a 100% agree stage on topics?
How do you keep work away from personal?
Do you have any kind of work bounderies like dont talk about work when we are off etc.?
Would be really interesting! I am trying to get my wife on the digital bandwagon now, since her background was always about “offline” work.
We are thinking about making a business together, but we are not sure how to “divide and conquer” together.
Hi Sarah, looking forward to reading your blog post! I'll be interested in seeing how you guys organise your time. Do you always work at the same time? How do you agree when to take breaks and have time to yourselves and do things together other than work. I'm currently bootstrapping a saas with my partner and would love to hear how you go about that. Thanks! 😃
Did either of your families have family businesses? Would you like to hire your children (or nephews, nieces, etc) in the future when/if you settle down?
I think family businesses are the best! (Or sometimes worst, depending on the family, lol.)
It'd be interesting to know how many people in this community have spousal support / partners.
btw, Canny looks awesome!
Here's one along those lines: https://articles.bplans.com/5-tips-starting-business-spouse/
Nice! Thanks for sharing