If you don't have kids I think it's fairly simple: Do you respect the reason your SO is not supportive of your startup? If you do, the perhaps he/she has a po

If you don't have kids I think it's fairly simple: Do you respect the reason your SO is not supportive of your startup? If you do, the perhaps he/she has a point. If you don't, then how can you seriously consider being in a relationship with someone whose view on such an important matter you don't respect? Some possible reasons a spouse might object are: Fear of the unknown, risk aversion, desire for predictable salary income, etc. Or, it's possible that your SO doesn't realize how passionate you are. I suggest you make a 10 minute pitch in which you lay down how important it is to you and why. You should articulate your exit strategy from the startup too. There are also some reasonable objections a financial partner (as many SOs are) might have to you taking a lot of risk that was not part of your initial agreement. Say you both earn $100K now and your salary will drop to $10K... this places more stress/burden on the SO to support both of you, which he/she may not want to do (he/she may want to buy a new car, etc. instead, which isn't entirely unreasonable). If the objection is reasonable and you respect it, it's probably not permanent, and chances are you can negotiate terms that the SO will support and get behind (such as, for example, you save up $50K before you quit your job, etc.)