When the founders become a family business

This season on Build Mode, we’re looking at what it takes to build a world class startup team. This week we look at the different types of co-founders and what it takes to start one with your family. Building with a family member or partner comes with great benefits such as stable trust and an “always on” mentality, but can also present challenges if all of the initial risk is from the same building.

Build Mode’s Isabelle Johannessen sat down with Hala Jalwan and Alessio Tresanti, husband and wife and co-founders of Rivio, an AI procurement startup. Jalwan and Tresanti both believe in following their instincts and love building things together, from social events to road trips. They found that they naturally took simple ideas and shot them as far as possible. So when he got Rivio’s idea, he was confident that they would all be ready to give it their all.

As Rivio has grown, it has two main things: First, the co-founders must have a clear direction. Second, it’s a good idea to bring in a third co-founder as a tie breaker.

Rivio’s third co-founder and CTO is Leo Larrere. “It’s great because it honestly fits the relationship,” Tresanti said of Larrere. “Obviously it’s a three-person relationship. He’s also the one who makes the conversation so intelligent and sometimes he can make the difference.”

In the second half of the episode, Johannessen talks to Anna Sun, co-founder of Today, an AI pilot for corporate event planning that she started with her sister Amy shortly after graduating from MIT. The Sun talked about how the two built their team from friends and former colleagues, and created a culture that lives in the community. There is a strong mutual trust, not only between the sisters-turned-co-founders but also the whole team.

“Because we are sisters, we trust each other so much that I remember even in the past, when I would start a conversation with my friends, you would always feel like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to step on someone else’s toes,’ or ‘I don’t know if this comment is too direct,'” said Sun. But because we grew up in the same family, we share many of the same values, and we communicate directly, we don’t want to waste time.

These discussions highlight how founders can create an effective and happy team as long as there is a foundation of trust, clear ownership, and a willingness to handle conflict respectfully.

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Isabelle Johannessen is our host. Build Mode created and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience Development is led by Morgan Little. And special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.