We quit our 6-figure jobs to launch a company together. Working with your spouse can be complicated — boundaries help.

• Gemma and Daniel Ng launched their family business, No Reception Club, in Vancouver in 2021.
• They stepped off their respective corporate ladders to build products they needed themselves.
• Their advice for working with your spouse is to be intentional about work and personal time and space.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Gemma Ng, 39, and Daniel Ng, 38, the husband-and-wife cofounders of No Reception Club, who are based in Vancouver. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Gemma: We've been together since we were 19, when we were both studying international business at different universities. We met during an internship program.

I spent a decade in fashion at companies like Ralph Lauren, Theory, and Banana Republic, working as a merchant and a buyer.

Daniel started in finance as an investment banker and private equity investor, then pivoted into tech after his MBA. He worked at Yelp, One Kings Lane, and Cherish.

Now, we run a company together called No Reception Club.

We both actually liked our jobs

Gemma: We felt challenged, and we were working in industries we admired. I once thought it'd be so cool to be VP of merchandising at a retailer I love. Daniel had ambitions in tech leadership.

We weren't miserable, but 10 years in, we started asking: Where is this path going? What does it look like in another five or 10 years?

The reality is, the higher you go in corporate America, the less you do of the thing that drew you there. We both loved building products — mine were physical, his were digital.

When you look up the ladder, success looks more like managing 40 or 50 people, sitting in meetings all day, navigating politics, and less about creating. That didn't appeal to us.

We'd always fantasized about working together

Daniel: Over the years, we'd tinker with side hustle ideas, but nothing ever stuck.

That changed after our son was born in 2019. When he was seven months old, we took a five-hour flight from San Francisco to Hawaii, and it was a disaster. Everything that could go wrong did. We were miserable, and honestly, angry at each other.

Sitting on that plane, we thought, Why isn't anyone making this easier? There are travel brands and parenting brands, but there was nothing at the intersection.

That flight planted the seed for No Reception Club

Gemma: On that same trip in Hawaii, we had a long dinner conversation and decided we were going to give it a go. Practically, that meant I'd quit first. My background in creating physical products was more directly relevant in the early days, and we wanted to be product-first.

I gave notice at my job a month later and started working on our business full time in March 2020. Daniel stayed at Yelp, working nights and weekends on our business. We were both earning six-figure salaries in our last corporate roles.

Daniel: For two years, we balanced it that way. Gemma led product development while I kept my day job.

In 2021, we launched our Kickstarter

Daniel: The campaign ran for 33 days over July and August of 2021. We reached our initial funding target of $30,000 in less than three days, and the campaign went on to raise nearly $67,000.

We did it by posting extensively in family travel Facebook groups about our products to get feedback and share about the campaign. We also reached out cold to publications and influencers who might be interested in our products.

We've raised $240,000 in crowdfunding across Kickstarter and Indiegogo

Daniel: In 2021, we launched our first product, the Getaway Bag, the first travel-specific diaper bag.

I still remember the thrill of sitting there with our kid when we went live, and wondering, Is anyone going to show up? Or will this be like Halloween, with the lights on and nobody knocking?

Then we got our first sale, then 10, then 100. It was exhilarating.

It was also exhausting. Our first inventory shipment arrived while Gemma was nine months pregnant with our second child.

With COVID-19 supply chain delays, the timing couldn't have been worse. We were working nonstop, packing orders ourselves, running to the post office, and barely sleeping.

I hit a breaking point. I went for a run to clear my head and came back knowing I needed to quit Yelp. It wasn't because our startup income had replaced my salary — it hadn't.

I realized I was giving my best hours to someone else and my worst hours to our family business

Daniel: I didn't want to regret not betting on us. I told myself I'd give it a year. If it didn't work, I could always go back to tech. That leap of faith paid off. The business now fully supports our family.

Building a company together while raising kids brings its own challenges. At first, we thought the secret would be clear boundaries: Gemma owns physical, I own digital. In practice, we're in each other's worlds constantly.

We consult on everything, which actually comes from a place of trust and respect. There's always a clear owner who takes it to the finish line, but we value each other's perspectives. It's not unusual to see both of us in the same meeting, rolling our chairs over to join.

The trickier part is the boundaries between work and life

Gemma: It's very easy for every moment to become a work moment. Early on, Daniel had a habit of asking me business questions right before bed, which kept me from sleeping because my brain was spinning.

We've learned to be intentional. We carve out at least an hour at night for no work — just watching a show or reading.

During work hours, we try not to let kid logistics creep in, except at lunch

Gemma: We give each other veto power to say, "not now," and we've gotten better at reading the moment.

Having an office in our home has also helped. For a long time, our desks were in the dining room, the living room, and even the bedroom. Now at least we can shut the door, even if our kids still press their faces against the glass.

The home office is the only office our business uses, and we're the only full-time employees. We have contracted part-time support for customer service.

What makes it work is empathy

Daniel: In a corporate setting, your coworkers only know your office self. As partners, we know everything that's going on — it's the first week of school, a parent is sick, the kids are extra needy. We can adjust priorities with a full understanding of the bigger picture.

Gemma: Working with your spouse can be complicated, but for us, the benefits outweigh the challenges. There's no one I'd rather be building this with.