James Sinclair, co-founder of EnterpriseJungle: Startups are hard work. On day one the company likely has a dismally low bank balance (unless you are lucky enough to start with seed capital), an idea with a meandering roadmap, an untested revenue model and a subjective belief that people will love what you’re doing so much that they’ll want to pay hard-earned money for it. Tough.

    People often seek a co-founder to share that journey out of want or need. Why and for what purpose? For some it’s to spread the workload and for others it’s to ensure waning motivation is spotted early and rectified. Or perhaps you are weak at finance but a phenomenal strategist and are looking to fill skills gaps you know, or think you know, exist. All valid reasons.

    Many say that involving friends or family in your business is a recipe for disaster: that it invites tragedy. As the saying goes, you can pick your friends but not your family – so why would you pick someone you are connected to by blood or law and not from the rest of the overqualified labor pool?

    There’s another way of looking at the business and family issue which I rarely hear: that it’s a good idea. For any startup or entrepreneur, family members are organically and automatically shareholders in one way or another. Whether it is their investment of time to help and support you, driving you to the airport to save you money, babysitting or proofreading your document, what you are aspiring to do is likely encouraged, supported and more readily achievable with their support.

    So should you join forces and go into business with family? Move them from emotional stakeholders to shareholders or partners? Treat their views as integral to corporate strategy as opposed to mere opinion or idle dinner table feedback?  In most cases, it sounds like a bad idea.

    Siblings, couples, parent/child-run businesses all carry that same risk. If things go wrong in the office, it has a serious implication on your family life – and vice versa. And just because you love and trust someone doesn’t mean they have the skills required for business. It is arguably harder to veto a decision by someone you respect versus someone you love and don’t want to upset. There are also risks that senior employees may feel their opinion will always come after that of the blood relative or “other half” which can seriously impact talent recruitment.

    In rare cases, however, those combinations do work. When the depth of complementarity is so profound that the sum of the parts really can create something better, it’s a no brainer. It’s twice as hard, more complicated and more emotional, but no one knows you like a family member: how to get the best out of you and how best to support you. In those cases, that’s a powerful duo.

    My decision was as cold and calculated as it was instinctive and emotional. I needed someone who could offer complementary skills, cover half the globe while I slept, has a completely different business network and spoke as many European languages as I speak tech code. Someone I trust implicitly, always over-delivers and, whether or not she is a shareholder in my day job, is often my first and best source of advice.

    When EnterpriseJungle was conceived, it was my sister I wanted to ask to take the journey with me. It was a decision based on all the criteria I would have applied to anyone else – except in this case it was a faster and easier decision.

    For me, the tipping point was when she said no; when she made me talk her through step-by-step what I had in mind and how she could help (and then she said no again!). Only when she firmly understood my vision and how it could translate into a viable business and, not only shared but contributed to how that vision could materialize, did that decision feel right for us both.

    At that exact moment I gained a true business partner: until then it was just me chatting with my sister.

    Mr. Sinclair is the co-founder of EnterpriseJungle. He is a tech entrepreneur, SXSW Mentor and acting EIR to a Los Angeles Venture Firm with a focus on business and product strategy to accelerate growth.