My wife Erin came to work for Matasano a couple years ago, and while she might express some reservations, I'd say it's been an unalloyed positive in our relationship and for the business.
For the relationship, working with Erin has I think made long hours and at-times-fanatical devotion to the company more bearable. For instance, she is "by default" included in the happenings of the company and in the work (Erin develops and consults with us); before she joined up, it was too easy to clam up about what I was working on, because who wants to explain the details of a long, tedious, crappy day?
For the company, the win is that we get a strong technical resource with huge flexibility in compensation and scheduling. We take a tax-advantaged joint income from the company. And we can switch-hit taking care of the kids; since we're both working on the same thing, there's less tension working out who's staying home when one of them gets sick or when they have a day off from school.
Apparently this is a well-known minefield, and so I'm hesitant to write all this stuff up knowing that it could all blow up in our faces down the road. But it's been a couple years now, and while I can't say they've been drama-free, I'm think the decision has vindicated itself.
It very much depends... I've been in this position once and it worked out great for the business but our personal relation definitely suffered because of it.
Being both spouse and business partner is hard, and you'll only find out just how hard it is once you're doing it.
I co-founded a company with my husband. Pretty much the same ideas as mentioned in the article: complimentary skills are good; time flexibility is good; too much tech talk needs to be balanced with non-work adventures.
It was hard at first: the boundary between work and personal disagreements is harsh, especially because your spouse is otherwise your best supporter and level-minded advisor. The joyful adventures of being together were replaced by work and stress.
These problems aren't caused by there being something inherently troublesome about spouses working together. That situation just provides some increase in stress and decrease in decompress than more standard setups.
Thus, it's a really useful scenario to explore! In our case, it helped us develop better communication skills, both professionally and personally. I am so glad we took this opportunity and ran with it.
It depends. I never could have had a business with my ex-wife. But I enjoy helping my SO getting her career and business as a painter and photographer going. A lot depends on personalities. (Who gets the blame for problems.failures.) I think success is more likely if levels of abilities and contributions are equivalent. Good points in the article.
For the relationship, working with Erin has I think made long hours and at-times-fanatical devotion to the company more bearable. For instance, she is "by default" included in the happenings of the company and in the work (Erin develops and consults with us); before she joined up, it was too easy to clam up about what I was working on, because who wants to explain the details of a long, tedious, crappy day?
For the company, the win is that we get a strong technical resource with huge flexibility in compensation and scheduling. We take a tax-advantaged joint income from the company. And we can switch-hit taking care of the kids; since we're both working on the same thing, there's less tension working out who's staying home when one of them gets sick or when they have a day off from school.
Apparently this is a well-known minefield, and so I'm hesitant to write all this stuff up knowing that it could all blow up in our faces down the road. But it's been a couple years now, and while I can't say they've been drama-free, I'm think the decision has vindicated itself.