Choosing Both

When you're building a company, you sacrifice almost everything. You're obsessed. For many founders, personal relationships will suffer.

And fair enough. You don't give as much time to hanging out with friends because you'd genuinely rather spend your time working.

The same goes for romantic relationships. If your partner is disconnected from your work, they can start to feel like they're competing for your attention.

Sometimes Marie and I get weird comments about being married cofounders, but I will say, we feel like we haven't had to make any sacrifices.

We spend literally all our time together. We're both obsessed with the same thing.

Stressful moments and weeks are shared between us and we both totally understand. Similarly, wins equally celebrated.

Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston figured this out 20 years ago. They started YC while dating, ran it together for years, and are still married with kids.

PG wrote: "Before we had kids, YC was more or less our life. There was no real distinction between working hours and not. We talked about YC all the time. And we liked it."

That's exactly how it feels for us.

There's no tension between "work time" and "relationship time."

Not saying everyone should start a company with their spouse. But for us it means we never have to choose between the company and each other.

Happy almost Valentines.