#MyLoveStory: Love in the Time of Startups

Did you ever think love and tech would go together? After reading these heart-warming stories, you might!

The first high for an entrepreneur is when an idea chooses him. He runs, sprints and leaps to share it with someone he trusts, someone he knows will not brush it away but help nurture it to fruition. That someone is often a friend and confidante the spirit yearns to take along for the joyride the entrepreneur looks to embark on.

That is what happened when TravelTriangle’s Co-founder and CEO, Sankalp Agarwal, first came up with the idea for a holiday marketplace. He rushed to meet Kanika in a noisy food court where his first business model was drawn up on tissue paper using a borrowed pen.

So infectious was his passion that Kanika couldn’t help but get onboard. While their meetings continued to be dominated by start-up talk, venture funds and updates on the model, Kanika began to focus more pointedly on her career as an HR professional so that their future could be financially secure. And they weren’t even married yet! But the ever going-after-what-I-want-and-what-is-right CEO fashioned a paper ring and proposed to Kanika during one such meeting!

The great Peter Drucker said:

‪“In every success story you will find someone who has made a courageous decision. That courageous decision is often made when someone who is not blinded by their own passion or vision dares enough to look out for someone else. The courage to believe in another person’s dream, the courage to tell them that it is ok to not succeed in the first attempt, and the courage to be a partner in life, for better or for worse.”

One might wonder how and when the busy entrepreneurs find time to fall in love. “Social media”, says Sanchit Garg, second of TravelTriangle’s three co-founders. Being a techie himself and more likely to be found in front of computer screen than a food court, he believes that although ‪it was social media which brought them together, it was their shared interest in science and adventure – and love, of course – that made him a husband to his wife, Juhi Ranjan.

They got married the year the company came into existence, and though Sanchit had invested all his money in the venture, financial considerations were never an issue.

“I had my (doctoral) stipend coming, so all Sanchit had to do was keep himself well-fed”, says Juhi, roaring with laughter.

On a more serious note, it was the knowledge that somebody as emotionally and mentally strong as my wife was 100% behind me and my idea that kept me motivated.

Sanchit 

It helps when the better half is providing for the family, enabling the entrepreneur to focus on making their dream a reality. But what do you do when both partners are looking at making unconventional career changes?

At a time when Abhiruchi was fielding offers from big-shots earning the big greens, Devendra Rane (Co-founder of Coverfox) says he was in the ‘Not Applicable’ category. IIT Mumbai alumnus and serial entrepreneur Devendra met Abhiruchi, then an advertising professional.

It was an uncertain time career-wise for the both of them when they decided to get married. Abhiruchi was thinking about quitting her job to write for films but was, in her words, “addicted to the salary cheque”. It was her knight in wedded armour who coaxed her to follow her passion and the two free-spirited individuals gave wings to each other’s dreams. They were confident in each other as only two people in love can be.

Love takes a unique form for every couple, for as Robert Fulghun said:

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness – and call it love – true love.”