Chris Crossley, VP product and co-founder of Line-Up
For me, there’s no such thing as a work-life balance. For the last three and a half years, Line-Up, the tech company I started, has been my life. I started the business with my best friend of the last 26 years (I’m turning 30 this year) and another close friend from university. I met my fiancee, Laura, in a co-working space for startups. Having recently completed some crowdfunding, many of our wedding guests will also be my investors. We’ve joked that we’ll have an AGM [annual general meeting] after the cutting of the cake – the lines are certainly blurred.
For anyone who asks for advice about starting a business, among other things I ask them two questions. First, how long can you realistically go without a monthly pay check? Second, who else in your life does your decision affect? I was incredibly lucky when we started our company. I was able to move back home and live there for the best part of a year until we got the business in good shape. Not everyone has this luxury.
I was also incredibly lucky that, in the form of Laura, I had someone who has been hugely supportive since day one, and equally importantly, understands what experiences I’m going through.
Surevine, the company where Laura works, is a few years older than Line-Up and has done an amazing job of carving out a niche for itself in secure software development, mostly for the government and the public sector. From my perspective, it’s been interesting to observe Surevine and to speak to Laura about the potential pitfalls associated with rapid growth. I’d like to think that we’ve sidestepped some banana skins at Line-Up thanks to Laura’s help and advice along the way.
Yes I’m addicted to work and yes, it can drive Laura mad. But she’s never once got angry with me for working late at night. She’s never thrown a strop when I’ve been checking emails on holiday or when I went on a three-week trip to the US with almost no notice. She understands the sacrifices we’ve both made for my business and she knows what the end goal is. I know how lucky I am to have her and I know that a lesser relationship would have buckled under the strain.
Line-Up is now 10 people strong, we have growing monthly revenue and some of our clients are the biggest media companies in the world. Will there ever be a work-life balance? Probably not. Though I may try to not check my emails on our honeymoon. Possibly.
Laura Gill, communications and engagement lead at Surevine
Living with someone whose work is their life might not be everyone’s idea of a dream come true. When I met Chris, my friends in “normal jobs” were filling my head with the excitement of dating someone with their own company and the glamour of it all. With no boss, he can go into work at whatever time he likes, take time off… but believe me, this is not the case. Chris works harder than anyone I have ever met. He is on the earliest train into London every morning (we live in south-west London) without fail and works until most people have gone home for the evening. And time off? Although I try and persuade him, I am almost never successful.
Saying that, my own work-life balance might not be everyone’s cup of tea. I also work for a startup, although we feel “small” rather than “startup” these days. I head up the marketing and talent management at Surevine, a company that builds secure collaboration systems for the UK government and public sector. I was their first employee, and so I know what it takes to get a company off the ground. Maybe that’s why Chris and I work so well; I get it.
Chris jokes that I have never seen the “rich” him – the him that can afford to go out for dinner with friends just because it’s Wednesday; the him that stops by the pub for a pint without weighing up the cost of buying beer from the shop and taking it home; the him that would never have smashed my shoe-fund Terramundi pot when we ran out of money for the electricity meter at home. But the him I have seen is driven, ambitious and happy, and I would rather have this him any day.
The last three years have been a roller coaster. Line-Up’s journey has not always been smooth, but what great journey ever is? I have (by proxy) been on this roller coaster with them, and am in awe of everything they have achieved. They have built not only a successful business, but have attracted some amazing investors and a team of incredible people.
Living with an entrepreneur isn’t easy – they are high one minute and low the next. They are unpredictable, and check their emails all the time. All. The. Time. Even escaping to Dorset in the middle of nowhere with no Wi-Fi doesn’t stop them – turns out all those long countryside walks weren’t to admire the views, they were walks towards what Chris hoped was a strong 3G signal.
But I wouldn’t want him any other way. I admire his passion for what he does, his determination to make it work, and his commitment to the friends he is doing this with. I wouldn’t, and couldn’t, go through this with anyone else.
In a few weeks when we get married, I might just be able to keep him away from his emails. Having recently completed some crowdfunding, many of our friends and family have invested in the business, so a lot of wedding guests will also be my investors. So, I have no chance of keeping him away from work. And honestly, I wouldn’t want to.
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