Mention the word “startup”, and it is very likely that meeting smart and cool people, heaps of money, freedom and enthusiasm come to mind. Sure there is hard work and long hours, but nobody ever changed the world working 9 to 5.
But in a recent workshop in Melbourne’s Blockchain Centre, a co-working space that plays host to startups, the conversation turned into an unexpected cost of pursuing the small company dream: relationship crisis. And we are not talking about a place of bickering with your spouse or partner. We are talking full-on marital carnage.
The startup founders and their spouses who wind up in Barbas’s relationship counselling rooms have often had to pull their children from fee-paying school for the interest of the company, and gave up the home they had been paying off for a rental lease.
Far from the dream of liberty and beating your path, the households of founders believe that the entire venture has been a giant step backwards.
But unless founders control the connection and family impact in their business situation, they might find themselves in a nightmare with their balance sheet for company at night.