When sleeping with your co-founder is a great idea: 3 couples share their thoughts

Love is complex, so much so that thousands of songs have been composed about it. Our fascination with love stretches back all the way to Shakespeare and his star-crossed lovers. A lot of drama is involved, and all doesn’t always end well.

Which is why when you talk about mixing love and entrepreneurship, red flags are raised. What happens if the couple breaks up? What if they argue or stop getting along? What if emotions get in the way of rational decision making?

Investors too are typically wary of funding romantically involved co-founders of every permutation. The risks are too great. But that has not stopped some couples from venturing out and starting their own enterprises. I speak to three such teams to find out what they have to say.

Jia En Teo and Federico Folcia, co-founders, Roomorama

The pair started Roomorama, an online short-term rentals marketplace, in January 2009. Since then, they have gone on to raise US$2.1M in seed capital. Their collaboration happened organically: When Federico had the idea, Jia En helped out, but she got more and more involved as time went on. They got married recently.

What advice would you give to entrepreneurs and their partners who are thinking of starting a company as a couple?

Federico: Not to start a company together (laughs).

Jia En: Jokes aside, I think one thing we would advice other couples to do is to, number one, always protect yourselves legally. Just because you’re together doesn’t mean you’ll be together forever. Just make sure you have the proper legal documents drawn up as an organization. Never treat yourselves as friends that can trust each other. Of course, that’s what you hope, but at the end of the day, fights happen, quarrels happen.

So, before even going into it, get an outside lawyer to draft out ownership, what happens if someone leaves; all these contingencies need to be drawn out by a lawyer. The second advice I would give is that both parties should bring different skills to the table. I think it’s very difficult if both parties have the same exact skills, as that may leads to more opportunities for conflict.

Having a lawyer coming in; the concept seems kinda foreign for couples right? How tough is it?

J: I think you both just have to realize that it’s a necessary arrangement. You do it with a friend when you’re going into a business, you do it with a business partner. You should expect to do it with whomever you’re working with. You have to be prepared to go through these very unromantic motions. I think it’s very important.

How do clients and potential investors react to the fact that both of you are a couple and how do you deal with that?

F: I think it’s more of a concern in Asia than the Western world. In my conversations with investors or the press I have barely been asked about our relationship. Whereas in Asia, Singapore especially, every single investor would ask. I think it’s a matter of peace of mind for them. They want to know the management is stable, and I think it’s very natural to ask these kinds of questions. But in the end it hasn’t really been a big issue. In general though I think they do prefer not to have couples who are both involved in the process. With couples you have to factor in the emotional relationship between the two senior managers.

Can you speculate or explain why?