3 ms·
I think, realistically, a spouse of a founder might be very involved in a company and decision making. Depending on the exact nature of the relationship, this i
by whiddershins 13y ago
I think, realistically, a spouse of a founder might be very involved in a company and decision making. Depending on the exact nature of the relationship, this is probably inevitable, very common, and not necessarily undesirable. There is a reason we give the president's wife a special title even though technically no one voted for her, many married couples are a team in the professional arena as well.
- ganeumann 13y agoOh no, no no no. Your life partner is there to support you, personally, through the difficulty of starting and growing a business (if you're lucky.) They should listen to you and maybe even give you some gentle advice. But when they show up at work and start meddling, there's no way that will go well. Why would you even want that? It can't be good for the organization--because they are outside the normal chain of command and thus not really accountable for their actions, and because they have power not earned through an objective process--and it can't be good for your relationship. Just don't do it.
- kfcm 13y agoDepending upon corporate structure and legal jurisdiction, certain funding streams (loans, lines of credit, guarantees) WILL require both the founder and their spouse to sign on the dotted line. This places the spouse on the financial hook as much as the founder, preventing the squirreling away of assets out of reach of creditors. It also makes the spouse a "silent" investor in the company. I have only seen this a couple times. In both cases, the corporate structures were LLCs, and the amounts were over a million.