These Wharton Grads Are Redefining The Term Partner in Business Partners
Teamwork is an essential aspect of running a successful business. One needs the right amount of chemistry and understanding with their business partner to make things click. But what happens when your business partner is also your partner?
These four Wharton graduates are living proof that a mix of personal and professional partnerships can indeed be a winning combination.
Andrés Modak (WG’12) and Rachel Cohen (WG’12)
Wharton MBA graduates Andrés and Rachel started their own homeware brand called Snowe in 2013, soon after graduating with their MBA degrees, despite friends and family advising them not to. Snowe has now become the go-to place for home essentials such as linens, tabletop goods, and other home accessories. After launching online in 2015, and with a couple of brick-and-mortar stores in New York and the Hamptons, Snowe’s sales have grown by 300 to 400 percent year over year.
When it comes to their roles at the company, Rachel oversees finance, business development, and retail, while Andrés leads marketing, creative, and technology. However, they also work effortlessly together when important decisions are needed.
Talking about the misconceptions people have about starting a business with your partner, Rachel says:
“A lot of people think you’re crazy when you tell them that you’re going to start a business with your significant other. If we heeded everyone’s advice, we wouldn’t have necessarily done it. But I guess part of entrepreneurship is going against the grain and what everyone tells you to do anyway”
Ada Chen Rekhi (W’07) and Sachin Rekhi (W’05)
In 2016, Ada Chen Rekhi and Sachin Rekhi, graduates from Wharton’s undergraduate classes of 2007 and 2005 respectively, co-founded of Notejoy, a collaborative-notes app. Sachin leads the product design and engineering department, while Ada focuses on growth, marketing, analytics, and operations. The couple have been pretty clear on who “owns” which aspect of the company, and that has helped them grow constantly.
Says Sachin regarding the need for clear roles in the company:
“Being clear about which partner is responsible for what is not only important for spouses working together—that’s ideal for any co-founding relationship. Looking back at my first startup, where we had three cofounders, we didn’t have that separation of responsibilities. We were all involved with everything related to R&D, and that was a recipe for disaster, because decision-making was incredibly slow.”
Notejoy is the second business venture from the couple, after their first company, Connected, a contact aggregation tool, was acquired by LinkedIn in 2011.
Allison Young Chávez (W’07) and Iván Chávez (W’07)
The husband and wife team of Allison Young Chávez and Iván Chávez have been running their own Sweet Paris creperie in Houston since 2012. The Wharton grads, both from the Class of 2007, started the business after Ivan couldn’t fulfil his cravings for crepes in Texas, something he loved doing while studying in France.
Working with her husband has given Allison quite the flexibility that she wouldn’t have been able to seek elsewhere. She says:
“Now, I really appreciate the ability to work with my spouse and have a family. It gives you a different kind of flexibility. You lean into each other at different times. When one person needs to focus more on the family, the other person can pick up the slack. It’s been a wonderful thing. Obviously, you trust your spouse the most, so to be able to have them as your business partner is definitely a gift.”
Traci Shanbrun Lerner (W’81) and Mark Lerner (W’80)
Founders of the now-defunct hedge fund Chesapeake Partners, both Traci Shanbrun Lerner and Mark Lerner were met with skepticism when they held meetings with prospective investors. “Investors were much more concerned that we would get divorced. There are so many more reasons why their (investors) relationship as business partners should break up than my relationship with my husband.” says Traci.
The couple had to shut down Chesapeake Partners in 2016 after an 18-month stretch of losses, blaming government regulation for making investing tougher.
The Wharton grads launched their hedge fund in 1991 that saw some of the highest returns in the industry – more than 14% compounded annual net return, compared to the industry average of 9%.
Traci credits her husband Mark for handling things in a certain way that allowed them to function smoothly.
“I think the advantage we had over others is that Mark really kept me away, certainly during market hours, from having to deal with anything other than the market. There was such total trust between the two of us.”
