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这些撕破脸的离婚案告诉我们:别跟爱人合伙做生意

这些撕破脸的离婚案告诉我们:别跟爱人合伙做生意

Polina Marinova 2018-03-05
和亲密爱人一起创业要谨慎,一旦感情破裂,事业也会大受影响。

美国加州洛杉矶,西岸的零售店"Tory by TRB"开张时,托里·伯奇和克里斯·伯奇夫妇。Photograph by Chris Weeks — WireImage/Getty Images

如果你打算和亲密爱人一起创业,可能要三思。感情好的时候,人们会叫你们夫妇企业界的“神雕侠侣”,感情一旦破裂就麻烦了。

还记得交友软件Tinder联合创始人惠特尼·沃尔夫和贾斯汀·马廷离婚时的闹剧吗?永利度假村创始人夫妇史蒂夫·维恩和伊莲·维恩的公开对骂也让人记忆犹新吧?

这样的例子并不鲜见。以下列举了三对高调企业家伴侣,最后都劳燕分飞。

Tinder创始人惠特尼·沃尔夫和贾斯汀·马廷

怒火毁掉了曾携手创立Tinder的情侣。2014年两人分手可不仅是一场丑陋的戏剧性撕逼,最后还演变成性骚扰诉讼。2013年沃尔夫和马廷开始约会,分手后两人的关系急转直下。沃尔夫称,曾收到马廷有性别歧视色彩的短信和电邮。她起诉Tinder及其母公司Match.com和 IAC/InterActiveCorp,称遭到性骚扰,被迫退出Tinder的创业团队。这场官司据称以马廷赔偿100万美元了结。此后马廷从Tinder辞职,沃尔夫创立了女性用户交友应用,名叫Bumble。

永利度假村创始人史蒂夫·维恩和伊莲·维恩

《财富》杂志前副总编辑帕蒂·塞勒斯曾在2015年4月的一篇报道中评价:“企业界从未出现过永利度假村一样水火不容的大战。”伊莲和史蒂夫是赌博公司永利度假村的创始人。伊莲和史蒂夫两度结婚又两度离婚。伊莲是公司第三大股东。2015年,为了保住在永利度假村的董事席位,伊莲将与前夫的斗争闹得世人皆知。她说:“我有权待在董事会,监督今后发展情况。毕竟我是联合创始人。”2015年4月24日,伊莲未能获得投资者支持,没能保住永利度假村的董事席位。

运动时尚品牌Tory Burch创始人克里斯·伯奇和托里·伯奇

Tory Burch创始人的故事告诉我们,前任有可能另开一家公司跟你竞争来报复。亿万富翁投资者克里斯·伯奇和设计师托里·伯奇于1996年结婚,2004年共同开了第一家Tory Burch零售店。2006年,夫妇关系恶化(还对簿公堂),向法院提请离婚。这还不算完。克里斯出人意料地新开了一家时尚零售连锁品牌C. Wonder。该品牌和Tory Burch的经营理念非常相似。主要报道女性生活方式的美国网站PureWow曾有一篇文章分析得很到位:“克里斯·伯奇开C. Wonder的灵感可能来自前妻托里·伯奇速写簿上撕掉的一页纸。”五年后,C. Wonder经营未见起色,2015年1月关闭了所有门店。(财富中文网)

译者:Pessy

审校:夏林

 

You might want to think twice before you start a business with a romantic partner. The entrepreneur “power couple” title has a nice ring to it until things turn sour.

Remember the messy, dramatic break-up of Tinder co-founders Whitney Wolfe and Justin Mateen? How about the very public battle between Steve and Elaine Wynn?

Examples like this aren’t hard to find. Here are three high-profile entrepreneurial ventures that didn’t end happily ever after.

Tinder’s Whitney Wolfe and Justin Mateen

This Tinder match went up in flames. The 2014 breakup of co-founders Whitney Wolfe and Justin Mateen wasn’t just ugly and dramatic. It also ended with a sexual harassment lawsuit. Wolfe and Mateen dated in 2013, but after the relationship ended, things went downhill quickly. Wolfe said she received sexist text messages and emails from Mateen. Wolfe sued Tinder and its parent companies, Match.com and IAC/InterActiveCorp, claiming that she was sexually harassed and forced out of the startup. The lawsuit was settled for a reported $1 million, Mateen resigned from the company and Wolfe started her own female-friendly dating app called “Bumble.”

Wynn Resorts’ Steve and Elaine Wynn

As Fortune’s Pattie Sellers put it in an April 2015 article, “The corporate world has never seen a war quite like the one raging right now at Wynn Resorts .” Elaine and Steve Wynn co-founded casino-operator, Wynn Resorts. Elaine, twice-married to and twice-divorced from Steve, is the company’s third-largest shareholder. In 2015, Elaine went on a very public personal battle against her ex-husband to retain her board seat at Wynn Resorts. “I have earned the right to stay on the board and oversee the next phase of dynamic growth,” she said. “I cofounded that company.” On April 24, 2015, Elaine failed to woo investors and lost the battle to remain a director of the company she co-founded.

Tory Burch’s Chris and Tory Burch

Here’s the tale of what happens when your ex seeks revenge by starting a company to compete directly with yours. Billionaire investor Chris and designer Tory Burch married in 1996, and opened the first Tory Burch retail store in 2004. By 2006, things turned sour (and litigious), and the Burches filed for divorce. But that wasn’t the end. In a surprising move, Chris opened C. Wonder – a preppy clothing retail chain. And yes, it was very similar to the Tory Burch concept. A quote from a PureWow article sums it up: “The inspiration for Chris Burch’s C. Wonder could have been a page torn out of ex-wife Tory’s sketchpad.” After five years, C. Wonder failed to take off and shut all of its storesin January 2015.

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