Ask HN: How do investors feel about married couples?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10135282

by sirqueriesalot • 11 years ago

3 8 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm married, and my wife and I have been working on a startup together. Both of us have skills in our startup space, and thus far have contributed equally to our endeavor.

However, I know some investors might take issue with two founders being married (we have a third founder).

So, I was curious if anyone had any insight/thoughts? Particularly, how does YC feel about this?

dennybritz• 11 years ago

In general VCs may view this negatively, but traction trumps everything. If you can prove that you can execute and that you may be onto a billion dollar opportunity then investors will tolerate essentially anything.

Compared to other teams you may need to be further along (in terms of traction) to prove that you can work well together.

tixocloud• 11 years ago

Agreed. I'd say anything that distracts a founder from focusing on their business and growing 10x may be viewed negatively. But prove that there's traction and everything else doesn't really matter. You could probably convince others that being married is the only way you guys can keep sane so the both of you can grow the company.

kfullert• 11 years ago

Lanyrd was developed while the founders (Simon Willison and Natalie Downe) were on honeymoon, and was subsequently accepted into YC (Jan 2011) and has since been acquired by Eventbrite.

The story of the site is well worth a read - http://blog.natbat.net/post/61658401806/lanyrd-from-idea-to-...

nphyte• 11 years ago

your customers opinion of the product matters more than everything else. two of YC's founders Paul n Jessica are married .

veddox• 11 years ago

although they married quite some years after YC was founded

ig1• 11 years ago

It's fine, but you need to have an agreed strategy for what happens to the company if you break up. Will one founder leave, what happens to the stock, etc.

As long as you can treat it professionally it shouldn't be a problem for most serious investors.

bambang150• 11 years ago

Most investors will view this as a factor among many when deciding whether to invest. Sometimes that factor will be a negative, sometimes a positive, sometimes neutral -- depending on the circumstances. It definitely does give them something to think about and to be concerned about; but doesn't mean investors won't invest.

What will a VC care about when analyzing this factor? The best explanation of what the VC will consider is probably similar to what a couple-team should be considering before forming a startup.

cmer• 11 years ago

I founded a startup with my wife 4 years ago. We're now at Series B from top tier investors (Sequoia, Lightspeed) and it has never been an issue for us. I think the fact that we complemented each other so well was actually a plus.

I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. We actually worried about it quite a bit so I understand got concerns.

Ask HN: How do investors feel about married couples?

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