Well, you can't have a mom and pop business without mom and pop. If this is going to be a small close knit company, having spouses join can be a stabilizing inf

Well, you can't have a mom and pop business without mom and pop. If this is going to be a small close knit company, having spouses join can be a stabilizing influence - less arguments about sacrificing personal time for work sprints, less affairs at work, more collaboration. If you want a shark tank with no consideration for personal life, you can find one, but then they can also fire you in cold blood when you can least afford it. Seems like a question of what kind of venture you want to be, to which there is no single right answer. How sure are you that equity is going to be any good in any case, do you have any realistic prospects of being acquired or going public?