They say choosing a co-founder is like choosing a spouse. For a number of business leaders working in close partnerships, that observation couldn’t be more accurate.

The relationships entrepreneurs have with their businesses – and with the people they build them alongside – can be as demanding and intimate as any long-term partnership. Decisions are shared, pressure is constant and the stakes are personal. When it works, it can be deeply rewarding. When it doesn’t, the fallout can be difficult to separate from everyday life.

The Personal Cost of Founding UK Small Businesses

The numbers support this. According to new research from Employment Hero, only 14% of leaders working in UK small businesses (SMEs) see it as “just a job”, while 56% say it’s something they care deeply about.

But that deep investment comes at a cost: two in three (67%) say they’ve sacrificed time for themselves due to their business, and over half (55%) say they’ve sacrificed time with their partner. Given the latter, making the relationship with your business partners a positive one couldn’t be more pertinent.

Other studies reinforce these findings. A 2024 study by UCL School of Management Associate Professor Christina Richardson involving nearly 400 entrepreneurs worldwide, found that 43% of founders ultimately buy out co-founders due to interpersonal rifts – a business divorce as wrenching as any personal one.

Unlike larger organisations, there’s often little distance between professional disagreement and personal strain. That reality is especially pronounced in early-stage companies, where founders make high-stakes decisions under financial pressure, uncertainty and time constraints. Disagreements are rarely just about strategy. They often reflect deeper differences around values, risk tolerance and identity.

As psychotherapist and relationship expert Esther Perel notes: “Putting together a plan for your relationship to survive may be as important as your business plan.”

Co-founder Relationships: A UK Startup Perspective

It’s against this backdrop that the idea of treating a business relationship like a personal one starts to feel even more pressing.

For Joey Li and Thuta Khin, co-founders of UK social enterprise Leiho, that couldn’t be more true. They describe their partnership as a business marriage of sorts, shaped as much by learning how to communicate as by learning how to scale.

“We work differently – but that’s exactly why it works,” Joey says.

The pair met at university and launched Leiho in their early twenties, driven by a shared desire to build a business rooted in social impact. While their vision is shared, their approaches couldn’t be any more disparate. In the early days, those differences were not always easy to navigate.

“We were super young,” Joey recalls. “Can you imagine being 21 or 22 and trying to delegate to people older than you? We didn’t know anything at the start, but we were willing to figure it out as we went.”

Like many co-founders, they initially tried to present a united front at all costs. “At first, it was all rainbows and butterflies,” Joey says. “But we realised that being honest about what was actually happening was where the creativity and strength came from.”

Why Coaching Matters for UK Founders

A turning point came when they began working with a business coach. Rather than focusing solely on growth metrics, coaching centred on how they communicated, how decisions were made and whether space was given when needed.

“Coaching literally probably saved our relationship,” Joey says. “It helped us understand how differently we work and that it’s okay. Instead of butting heads, it became about how we make this a healthy way of working.”

In January 2024, tech publication Sifted reported on a growing trend of UK and European founders turning to couples therapy for their business partnerships, featuring Balderton Capital’s founder wellbeing programme launched in 2023. The article highlighted how business-tailored couples coaching helps co-founders understand how their partners process and react to different situations – particularly crucial during transitional periods like rapid growth or fundraising.

“Our work ethics, habits and mindsets can be very different and a coach helped us understand that,” Joey continues. “Once we learnt how to stop expecting certain levels of work, energy or standards from each other and learnt to appreciate each other’s true qualities and skills, a lot of trust and foundation was built.

“We were able to cheer each other on about the things we were good at and help each other succeed. Working on our relationship was genuinely a monumental pivot for our business and it helped us understand each other a lot more.”

For Thuta, the process was about recognising strengths without trying to replicate them. “It taught us how to give each other space and how to build something sustainable together,” she says.

“You realise your own skills gaps and how the other person, or the people you bring into the team, can help strengthen that.”

That perspective reflects a wider shift in how founders are being advised to think about leadership. For decades, Stanford Business School has famously offered a group therapy class (colloquially known as “Touchy Feely”), listing self-help books like The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work as required reading for business students. 

Increasingly, external guidance isn’t just about scaling faster, but about staying functional and navigating healthy relationship dynamics under pressure.

How SME Business Relationships Evolve

Yet despite the sacrifices – and Employment Hero’s research shows that overall, 94% of SME business leaders say they’ve made them – there’s a remarkable resilience among founders. Eighty-five percent of business owners and founders say they would do it all over again, given the chance to turn back the clock.

Perhaps that’s because, as the data also reveals, the top three emotions business leaders experience are all positive: purpose, fulfilled, and proud (stress comes fourth, at 37%).

This resilience speaks to something fundamental about the experience of being an entrepreneur. The healthiest businesses aren’t those that avoid conflict or sacrifice entirely – they’re the ones that acknowledge both as inevitable, then build relationships strong enough to weather them. 

For founders standing at the beginning of their journey, or struggling somewhere in the middle of it, the lesson is clear: invest in your relationships with the same rigour you’d apply to your company. The numbers don’t lie – and neither do the founders who’ve made it work.

Practical Steps for UK SME Founders: Building Better Business Relationships

Drawing on recent trends and the “seven verbs” framework popularised by relationship expert Esther Perel, here’s how SMEs can foster healthier bonds:

For UK small business owners, growth depends on the health of the founding team. Using Esther Perel’s “seven verbs” framework, here’s how to build more resilient business relationships:

• Invest in coaching early. Industry shifts suggest UK founders are increasingly turning to partnership coaching. While it comes with a cost, professional mediation can help to navigate differences before they become interpersonal rifts that lead to a business divorce.
• Balance “Asking” and “Giving”. Audit your partnership to ensure support isn’t one-sided. This helps prevent the burnout currently reported by 67% of SME leaders.
• Formalise “Refusing” boundaries. Set strict “no-business” zones to protect personal time. This is a practical necessity for the 55% of UK business owners currently sacrificing time with partners.
• “Acknowledge” to build safety. Actively recognise contributions to foster the psychological safety that 93% of leaders say is foundational to performance.
• Prioritise “Playing”. Schedule time for possibilities, not just problems. It protects the sense of pride and fulfilment 85% of founders say makes the work worth it.