Making a relationship work can be difficult at the best of times. Making it work when one of the partners is the founder or senior executive of a busy startup, with a million things to do and a small team with which to do them can be even more difficult.
One couple that has been able to make it work is Mark and Tania Suster. Mark now lives the quieter life of a venture capitalist, but as the founder of two startups, (sold to publicly traded French company) and Koral (sold to Salesforce.com), the Susters have twice been through the startup cycle.
This how Tania Suster remembers her startup-executive husband Mark on a Spanish vacation: always on the phone.
In a recent blog on Mark’s web site, his wife Tania shares 12 hints on how to survive a relationship with a busy start-up executive. For startup executives they’re certainly worth sharing with your spouses, as well as reading yourself to have a better sense of their perspective.
Click through at the end for more on each tip.
1. Get electronic access to his calendar
2. Respect and develop a positive working relationship with his co-workers
3. Don’t email him unless you have to
4. Have a “date night”
5. Respect his need for down time
6. Don’t be a Martyr
7. Pick your battle times
8. Work Travel isn’t fun
9. Remember that he is working to make our life better
10. Take vacations!
11. I love the idea of a Digital Sabbath
12. Take some weekends without the kids each year
