Many couples promise to support each other through sickness and in health, for richer or poorer—but a select group also promise to endure back orders and sellouts, viral moments and quiet launches. These couples, called copreneurs, are partners in life as well as in business. They blend the intimacy of a relationship with the complexity of entrepreneurship.
Copreneurial couples aren’t new. Hollywood legends Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz built Desilu Productions into one of the most influential studios of its time. Today, US Census Bureau data indicates that married couples own roughly one in 10 employer businesses. When you include unmarried partners, romantic couples operate nearly a quarter of all small businesses, according to a Management Review Quarterly study.
To understand the unique challenges copreneurs face, we talked with Ricardo Larroudé of footwear brand Larroudé and Jen Yu of men’s skin care line Jaxon Lane. Both are half of a copreneurial couple—Ricardo with his wife, Marina, and Jen with her husband, Alex. Their experiences share several throughlines, including complementary skill sets and a shared purpose, along with the efficiency that comes from working with someone who knows you deeply. They’ve both also weathered the challenges of tying personal and professional futures together.
Their experiences offer a practical look at how couples who want to start a business can make it work.
Ask the tough questions upfront
Money and timelines can be the most defining aspects of copreneurship—especially for early-stage founders.
For couples considering this path, the most practical advice is simply to prepare. Discuss money, timelines, and expectations before you’re deep in execution. Determine the level of risk you’re comfortable with, and plan for how you’ll financially navigate the early years of your business.
“In the first years of the business, most people aren’t bringing home enough money to pay for everything they need to pay for,” says Jen. “People think they’ll make money in year one or two—for 90% of businesses, that is not reality.”
Jen kept her full-time role at Google for Jaxon Lane’s first six years, while Alex ran the business day to day, creating the stability the business needed to grow. “We didn’t raise money, so somebody has to make the sacrifice,” she says.
That financial reality raises the questions couples should ask early: How long can one or both partners go without a predictable salary? Who’ll provide the health insurance and other benefits? How will you handle resentment if one partner feels they’re contributing more financially or operationally at different points in the journey?
Let strengths guide role division
Startups with two or more founders often outperform solo-led companies in raising venture capital, attracting customers, and maintaining operational stability, according to research by the Founders Forum Group and software company Carta. This is in large part because synergistic skill sets prevent bottlenecks and expand the team’s ability to execute.
When spouses or partners reach the point of taking full-time roles in the business, they should focus on carving out a set of responsibilities aligned with their natural strengths rather than trying to design a perfectly even split.
At Larroudé and Jaxon Lane, roles emerged organically as the couples began building their businesses. Both observed that the smoothest divisions of labor often feel inevitable rather than negotiated.
“The initial division was very natural. Anything that’s not fashion was me; everything that’s related to fashion and communication was Marina,” Ricardo says.
For Jaxon Lane, the pattern was similar: Jen’s strengths in finance and business operations balanced Alex’s focus on sales, customer communication, and relationship-building. “He always wanted to be on the trade show floor talking to people,” Jen says. “I don’t want to do that anyway. I’m the one setting up the infrastructure.”
Both founders also emphasized that roles don’t stay fixed. As a company grows, responsibilities shift, and partners sometimes find themselves out of their depth. Ricardo describes the importance of addressing those moments directly: “Do something about it. Learn it, talk about it, change roles. Just don’t let it simmer.”
Define how major decisions get made
Even with clear roles, cofounding means confronting decisions where partners disagree. Conflict is inevitable, but systems and structure can make it manageable. Decision-making works best when couples define how choices will be made before they’re tested in the heat of the moment.
Jen and Alex approach disagreements like a shared analytical exercise, and the goal isn’t always compromise or perfect agreement. “We lay out our cases and basically make a decision together, one way or the other,” Jen says. “We’re not trying to convince each other, per se, but both parties need to at least not disagree with it.”
Ricardo and Marina’s structure is different but built with the same intention. Their partnership is fully equal at the ownership level, but day-to-day authority is clearly delegated. “As shareholders, we’re equal partners, but day to day is 100% mine,” Ricardo explains.
That separation prevents every operational question from becoming a relationship question. And for the rare moments when a major decision reaches a deadlock, they’ve appointed a trusted board-level individual to make the final call.
Build communication systems that reduce conflict
Communication can make or break any relationship, but when that relationship is also a business partnership, the stakes are higher. Treating communication as a structured system—with shared rules of engagement that you intentionally design—can protect both the relationship and the business.
Both Jen and Ricardo note that their communication improved significantly through counseling.
“Counseling helped us figure out what leads to defensiveness,” Jen says. “Nowadays I’ll ask, ‘Can I give you feedback?’ and preface it with context. Before, there was a lot of ‘You don’t do this, you don’t do that.’”
She adds that when you’re copreneurs, your livelihood depends on solving your marital problems because unresolved issues can quickly become business issues. “Even though the tasks are different, the nature of our disagreements—the fundamental underlying issues—are the same,” she says.
At the same time, some tensions were operational, not personal. Jen’s highly structured, list-driven style didn’t match Alex’s more free-flowing, sales-oriented approach. The mismatch created strain until they changed the workflow instead of trying to change each other.
“I’m very boom, boom, boom—this needs to be done,” she says. “We got [Alex] an assistant a few months ago, and it’s been amazing. Now I don’t have to get mad at him—I just go to the assistant.”
Ricardo also notes that he and Marina preemptively sought counseling to sharpen their communication through outside structure. He emphasizes directness and not letting issues simmer. “Hard conversations lead to an easier life,” he says. “You’d rather go red in the face for 10 minutes than pink for months.”
Set boundaries that provide separation
Every copreneurial couple faces the question of where business ends and the relationship begins. For many successful couples, the key is to establish intentional rhythms to protect the business and personal relationships. Perfect work-life separation isn’t necessary.
For Jen and Alex, boundaries shift day to day. “It kind of bleeds together,” Jen says. “Sometimes we’re at home and just think of things and talk.” Over time, however, they realized that trying to troubleshoot work issues in their off-hours created more stress than clarity. “We’re much more rigorous about having meetings about things at work versus trying to figure things out on the fly at home,” she says.
Ricardo and Marina experience the same challenge, and it requires active management. “Separating work and home is the hardest part because it’s very intense,” Ricardo admits. “We set timeouts—times we don’t talk about work.”
Neither couple treats separation as a rigid rule. Instead, they rely on deliberate habits that help them shift between roles without letting either domain overwhelm the other.
And blurred lines aren’t always a drawback. Ricardo notes that deep familiarity can make the business more efficient. Sometimes he and Marina will be “frying eggs in the morning and say, ‘Did you call that person?’”—a kind of shorthand that simply isn’t possible with a non-romantic cofounder.
Model the leadership behaviors for your team
One concern aspiring copreneurs may share is how employees will perceive working for a married or romantic pair. But in practice, how founders communicate, disagree, and resolve tension can shape the workplace far more than the relationship status of the people at the top. Employees take cues from the behavior founders model, such as predictability, fairness, and mutual respect.
Ricardo emphasizes that teams may sometimes assume underlying tension even when nothing is wrong—and that it’s the couple’s responsibility to shape how the dynamic is perceived. “A lot of people might feel awkward working for a couple … so we work extra hard on not showing bias toward each other.”
Professionalism, in his view, is non-negotiable. “We talk in the most professional way. There’s no pettiness,” he says. “People are building careers here. We must be respectful for the other 99.9% of the people helping this business come together.”
At Jaxon Lane, Jen and Alex aim to model open, respectful disagreement. “We disagree with each other more than we disagree with other people,” she says. “I don’t think employees feel awkward because we give each other so much feedback already.”
Plan for moments that test the business and the relationship
Beyond planning for roles, finances, and communication, successful copreneurs prepare for difficult, existential moments before they arrive—whether the business falters, the relationship hits turbulence, or both. Thinking through these scenarios early creates stability for the couple, the company, and everyone who depends on them.
Jen gets to the emotional core by encouraging couples to consider what happens to the relationship if the business doesn’t make it. Ricardo flags discussing the mirror version—what happens to the company if the relationship struggles?
These questions aren’t hypothetical, and they require the same level of planning that founders would bring to finances or product strategy.
“You have to be really committed to seeing this through,” says Jen. “No matter what.”
Ricardo stresses the importance of having a contingency plan—what he calls the parachute—so the business isn’t left without direction if the relationship hits turbulence. For him, documenting that plan protects not just the couple but the employees and other shareholders who rely on stability at the top. These conversations aren’t comfortable, but they’re part of the discipline that makes copreneurship sustainable.
Despite these weighty issues, both Jen and Ricardo highlight the equally meaningful rewards. The trust, shorthand, and creative alignment can make the work feel uniquely fulfilling.
As Jen puts it: “You get to share this incredible, self-fulfilling experience with the person you love … and we’ve done amazing things for our marriage because of what we’ve had to do for the business.”
