I actually have a success story. A woman I started dating was the CTO of an early stage startup. I gradually started helping her with some coding on the side and it grew to the point where I left my day job and went on full time at her company. I've been working at the company for more than a decade at this point. It's gone from just the 3 of us, including her cofounder, to a 70+ person company. We're married now with 2 kids.
There was a good amount of conflict between us during the early stages of the company, so it's important that your relationship is sturdy if you are going to put yourself in that sort of situation. Now things are running pretty smoothly, so we actually don't talk as much about the company in off hours.
We've interviewed and hired a number of friends as well, mostly with good outcomes. We had to fire one friend, unfortunately, and another relationship soured as a result of how the interview process went. But several others are still with the company, and a couple have come and gone onto other things.
One thing to note, though, is that for the friends we've hired, they often morph into more professional relationships. Now that the company is settling down a bit, we're trying to rekindle some of the friendship piece.
There was a good amount of conflict between us during the early stages of the company, so it's important that your relationship is sturdy if you are going to put yourself in that sort of situation. Now things are running pretty smoothly, so we actually don't talk as much about the company in off hours.
We've interviewed and hired a number of friends as well, mostly with good outcomes. We had to fire one friend, unfortunately, and another relationship soured as a result of how the interview process went. But several others are still with the company, and a couple have come and gone onto other things.
One thing to note, though, is that for the friends we've hired, they often morph into more professional relationships. Now that the company is settling down a bit, we're trying to rekindle some of the friendship piece.