‘Tension at 11 PM, pet reels at 11:15’: Gurgaon woman shares challenges of building a startup after marrying co-founder
A Gurgaon-based co-founder has opened up about what it is like to share both a marriage and a business with the same person.
Parul Sharma, the co-founder of Delhi-NCR-based creative and podcasting startup The BOSS Hub, recently married her co-founder, Sarthak Varshney. In a LinkedIn post shared on Wednesday, she reflected on the blurred lines between work and personal life, saying that they had stopped trying to maintain a strict separation because it made them “more stressed, no less”.
“I married my co-founder. Three months married. Four years of building together. Nobody tells you what it actually looks like to share your life and your startup with the same personm” Sharma wrote. “It looks like tension over a missed internal deadline at 11 PM, and then both of us laughing at the same pet reel at 11:15,” she added.
The entrepreneur said that discussions about the startup often spill into family dinners and social gatherings. “It looks like sitting at dinner with family, talking about a social engagement, and one of us quietly saying ‘wait, should we add that feature’ and the other one already nodding because they were thinking the same thing,” she wrote, adding that neither of them can fully switch off from work, and that they have somehow made that dynamic work.
Further, Sharma said that she and her husband initially tried to create boundaries between work and life by drawing clear lines and keeping work conversations separate. However, she said that the approach only added stress. “There’s no clean separation between the life and the business. We tried to find one in the beginning. Drew the lines, set the rules, kept work at work. It made us more stressed, not less,” she wrote.
“So we stopped. The lines blur constantly now and honestly, I think that’s okay,” she added.
Sharma concluded the post saying. “We’re three months into marriage and still figuring it out. The startup too.”
How did social media react?
Sharma’s post resonated with social media users, with many sharing their own experiences of building businesses and spouses.
One user wrote, “The blur is the reality nobody talks about. You can’t really be 50/50 work and life when the work is yours and the life is shared. Three months in, four years building you’ve already figured out what takes most people years. The lines blur. That’s when it actually works.”
“And no one said we need lines…it’s best when you have a partner360…it’s not for the faint hearted but definitely worth it. Speaking from experience running it with my husband for 15 years now,” commented another.
“Sounds less like work-life balance and more like work-life integration. Thanks for sharing the reality behind it. And congratulations!” wrote a third user.
“We don’t always have to have everything figured out and life unfolds in beautiful ways on its own. Wishing you both a companionship that makes figuring things out fun and every detour worth taking,” said one user.
