I know this comment is pretty late since this popped up, but I had this exact experience before. I lost the girl, and in the end the startup didn't go anywhere

I know this comment is pretty late since this popped up, but I had this exact experience before. I lost the girl, and in the end the startup didn't go anywhere for other reasons. This woman was the love of my life and we were together for almost 8 years. The last year we were together, I started putting a lot of time into a business idea and it cost me a lot of the time we had always had to spend together. I don't blame my startup on losing her, though. I think it just brought some other issues up that had always been easily overlooked. The little things that just don't matter when you really, really love someone. But when we started getting stressed a bit because of the loss time, those things came up. All I can say is, don't listen to anyone that tells you to go one way or another. You have to ask yourself if you guys really, really, REALLY fucking care about each other. Think about this. Do you want to be an old, wrinkled man holding her hand one last time as she smiles at you one more time before breathing out for the last time and your children and grandkids are all around you? Or is she just a girlfriend? Businesses will come and go. That one person out of all 6 billion of us that is more important than all the others will not. There's no reason you have to give up one or the other. If you're the one for her, and her for you, then you guys need to compromise and make sure both succeed.