Five years building Source86, a daughter who arrived early, and a few honest words about the relationship that makes all of it possible.
Two big things happened one day apart. On Saturday, July 4th, our daughter was born, a little ahead of schedule, happy and healthy. On Sunday, July 5th, Source86 turned five. One of those I have been working toward for years. The other changed everything I think I understand about my life. Sitting at the intersection of the two has me thinking less about the business and more about the thing underneath it.
Here is what I keep landing on. None of the last five years would have been possible without the relationship I have at home. Not the milestones, not the hard quarters, not the late nights or the risks. The company tends to get the credit, but the foundation it stands on is the one I built with my wife.
I want to be careful how I say this, because founders have a habit of turning everything into strategy, including the people they love. You hear it framed as “choosing the right partner” the way you would talk about a good hire, as if a spouse were a box to check on the way to building something. That is not what I mean, and it is not how it works. The point is not that I picked well, like I got lucky in a draft. The point is what becomes possible when two people are truly in it together, and how much you owe that relationship in return.
Because the truth that does not get said enough is that this is the part of your life you cannot afford to neglect while you build. It is so easy to let it slide. The business is loud, it is urgent, it always wants more, and the relationship at home will quietly tolerate being put last for a long time before it breaks. But it is exactly that relationship that gives you the stability, the support, and the room to take risks in the first place. Work stress and home stress do not stay in their separate boxes. They bleed into each other constantly. When things are right at home, I can push as hard as the business needs me to. When they are not, everything gets harder, work included.
And getting it right is work. Real, ongoing work. For us a lot of it comes down to open communication, saying things out loud, early and often, especially the things that are easier to leave unsaid. You want to talk about what matters to each of you, what you are each afraid of, and what you are building toward, before you are deep in the thick of it and running on fumes. That way, when the hard moments come, and they always come, your values are already aligned and you are facing the thing together instead of negotiating it in the middle of a storm.
Our version of this has never been simple. My wife is a doctor, with the hours that come with that, and I am running a company that does not keep tidy hours either. Two demanding careers under one roof is hard. There are weeks where the logistics alone feel like a second job. But with the right person, that difficulty turns into something powerful rather than something that pulls you apart. We have made it work, not because it was easy, but because we kept choosing to do the work to make it work.
That is also why I feel ready for what has already begun. A first child is the biggest change either of us has faced, and I would be lying if I said there was no anxiety in it. But I am confident we will handle it, because we have handled every challenge so far the same way: together, talking honestly, aligned on where we are going. Holding her now, I do not expect it to be any different in that respect, just harder and more wonderful.
So five years in, and now a dad, what I am most grateful for is not on any org chart or any P&L. It is the home we have built, the person I built it with, and the newest, smallest reason all of it holds together. She arrived the day before the company turned five. The company is five. The most important chapter is just beginning.
