In love and work: For Valentine’s Day, 6 founder teams share stories and advice

For some, there’s no better pick than someone you already love and trust, be it a romantic partner, sibling or even your child. As our interviewees can attest, there’s love and joy aplenty in creating something great with someone special. But blurring the lines between family and work brings its own complications. It might mean that work literally follows you into the home (as the daughter of two parents running a second-generation family business, I can personally attest to this).

How did they do it? Below, find the love-filled stories of 12 DMV-area founders in honor of Valentine’s Day. Warning: Be prepared to aww.

Bob and Mollie Thorsen, The Little Burro

For the father-daughter duo behind The Little Burro — the Alexandria, Virginia startup that developed a wheelbarrow tray for gardening tools — working with family is a bit of a no-brainer, as Mollie grew up listening to her brothers talk about working at Bob’s construction company.

A decade later, the pair have landed tremendous retail opportunities, appeared on “Shark Tank” and attended tons of trade shows (one of Bob’s favorite memories is when Mollie fell asleep under their trade show table; they took home the show’s top prize later that day). Mollie said that working with her dad and late sister has been the best experience of her life.

“We built a whole new system of trust and understanding of each other that is just invaluable to me,” Mollie told Technical.ly. “We have traveled the country together for trade shows and pitch meetings, packed tens of thousands of boxes together, had great meals, had great laughs and have just learned so much together.”

When it comes to running a family business, old pro Bob advises ensuring that people can be honest about work matters without being criticized or condemned.

“In the end, the most important thing in a family-run business is that you maintain unity and love — even at the expense of the business,” he said. “Success in business will be worthless if it comes at the expense of your family.”

Ariane Valle and Turner Hoff, Vegetable + Butcher

Hoff and Valle’s love story is practically famous on the DC food startup scene: the star-crossed vegan and paleo-eater fall in love and create a meal delivery company to help others in the same boat.

In the beginning, Turner said, there weren’t too many feelings of doubt, just excitement and enjoyment while dreaming up a food business at The Kogod Courtyard. But once things launched, it was pretty difficult to separate work and life, since V+B’s first office was in the couple’s 400-square-foot studio apartment.

They’ve since upgraded spaces to gain a little bit of that room back. The pair also set a rule that once they enter the house, work talk is off-limits (even if that means they’re sitting in the car for a half-hour talking). That physical barrier helped them compartmentalize the areas of the lives they share, and they even set a code word for putting work talk aside when needed (we won’t blow its cover).

“Despite all the stress, seemingly impossible challenges and recurring feelings of overwhelm and imposter syndrome, sharing the journey with a loved one is incredibly rewarding,” Turner said. “It’s difficult to overstate how valuable it is to have a partner who genuinely understands and can empathize with the unique experience that is starting and growing a business.”

For Valle, starting a business with her partner also meant going head-to-head with her imposter syndrome — which she said she already felt as an immigrant who hadn’t finished college. In the beginning, she fielded many questions about if her relationship was the only reason she could be part of the company. On bad days when she remembers all these feelings, she said it can be really difficult to separate work and life. Wearing so many hats (cofounder, partner, company leader) can also make it hard to receive the support she needs without muddling other roles.

Together, they’ve learned the importance of accurate expectation-setting, as well as how to communicate in ways they wouldn’t otherwise. On those hard days, Valle said that having a partner who can find the compassion that she can’t find for herself keeps her feeling hopeful and grateful.

“There is something exceedingly special and rare when you experience a sense of awe and passion in the unfamiliar, every day, with someone you love, trust and admire,” Valle said. “It makes it worth the effort.”

Felix Lloyd and Jordan Lloyd Bookey, Beanstack

Working together is essentially part of Felix Lloyd and Jordan Lloyd Bookey’s DNA. The married cofounders met while teaching in DC and worked together on Felix’s first business while Jordan finished up business school. While they both developed the plan for that company, Money Island, the then-newlyweds decided to work separately.

Still, they knew they wanted to build something together someday, and one of their favorite pastimes used to be creating business ideas together. That eventually led to edtech startup Beanstack. The couple admitted that they started off trying to set clear work- and life-partnership boundaries before deciding that separation was far too difficult to achieve; instead, they chose to embrace the togetherness in both arenas.

“It is really special that we are partners in love, life and business, and we try to lean into appreciating that reality,” Felix and Jordan wrote to Technical.ly. “At the same time, we have had to work very hard on not letting a disagreement in one realm impact our relationship in the other. ”

Their secret to success? Making a point to connect outside of work just to be together. The couple takes 45 minutes each weeknight, while their kids are upstairs, to just hang out without any work screens. They also carve out similar short breaks in the day, like when their dog, Howie, needs a walk. They recommend finding physical space with separate office spots — and for those with kids, hosting a weekly meeting so they can understand and celebrate the business, too.

“Take the time to make sure this is the path you want, and that you are ready for the overlap between the business and personal realms in your life,” they said. “Discuss your separate visions for the business, and make sure you are aligned and the communication is truly open and honest.”

Frank and Walter Antezana, iTech AG

As the brothers tell it, tech consulting firm iTech AG was born one evening spent together after several glasses of wine. But for CEO Frank, going into business with his brother was wholly laced with trust. He knew the extensive expertise Walter, the company’s COO, had in operation and programming skills compared to his solutions and implementation knowledge. Together, Frank said, they knew they could build something great.

“There’s no question Walter and I were excited to embark on this business venture together,” Frank said. “As the younger brother, I was especially excited to share my experiences and knowledge with him — to show that I too have wisdom to impart! It was a proud moment on both sides.”

Frank acknowledged that they faced several trial-and-error moments as cofounders, which he said ultimately helped the organization grow stronger. He added that they now work well together thanks to their mutual respect for one another, which helps them build on, rather than challenge, their strengths; where Walter is extremely organized, Frank can move 1,000 miles per hour, so they can push forward while ensuring things don’t get left behind.

Frank noted that although they disagree at times, they’ve learned the best ways to move through it for the company.

“As brothers, we are always going to experience a bit of arm wrestling — a healthy debate is much needed to brainstorm, validate one another’s ideas and create a successful outcome,” Frank said. “As leaders, we can’t make decisions in a vacuum, because the results could be catastrophic. It has always been an important aspect of our relationship to be able to have productive discussions about the critical issues at hand and come to decisions to support our team and drive business value.”

Soraya Bagheri and Naeim Khanjani, Electo Analytics

Soraya Bagheri and Naeim Khanjani say they decided to create policy tech startup Electo Analytics based on complementary skills: Bagheri had more technical strengths while Khanjani had more business ones. Together, they felt they could accomplish so much more than they could on their own.

That strong working relationship has paid off, and the pair said it’s ensured their success as they constantly rely on each other’s strengths. The founders and new parents found it crucial to maintain both personal well-being and work success, even if that means work and the day-to-day inevitably intertwine. All in all, they said that though every relationship is different, the decision to go into business together is a highly personal one. Once it’s made, it’s crucial to nurture and attend to it to keep everything in alignment — while allowing some time for fun.

“It’s important for partners to have a shared vision, complementary skills and open communication for a partnership to be successful, and to ensure that priorities are aligned,” the pair said. “And always make sure to celebrate successes, no matter how big or small.”

Nameer Rizvi and Naomi-Grace Panlaqui, DC Music Live

Nameer Rizvi and Naomi-Grace Panlaqui, the creators of the concert-finding platform DC Music Live, actually made building something together a goal. As they’re both developers who enjoy creating apps beyond what they do for work, they said it felt only natural to work together.

“Before we even began talking about the idea of creating a mobile app that would list live music events for us to quickly gauge what was happening, we talked about how we really just wanted to work on something together — on anything!” Rizvi said.

The pair actually got the idea from wanting to find new date spots, so working on it together has been pretty intrinsic from the start. Still, as woven as it is into their off-hours life, they said they decide on specific days when they won’t work on the platform and prioritize just being with each other.

Even so, working on DC Music Live remains a favorite pastime — and even better to do together.

“We have a lot of fun doing things together, no matter what it is: cooking, cleaning, eating, walking, talking even taxes,” Rizvi said. “We just have fun doing things. We make each other laugh a lot, and that helps when you’re working on something together.”