Sam was introduced to me in the summer of 2022 by someone who neither of us knew well. Both Sam and I had recently met him on LinkedIn, and he suggested that I meet Sam, thinking that she might be a good candidate to help me with technical due diligence for what would become XEIA Venture Partners. The connection was made, and we started working together.
Sam lived in Toronto, I lived in LA and we worked remotely for several months before meeting in person for the first time when we traveled to New York to speak at an investor dinner together. We continued working together in an entirely professional and platonic way, spending hours on Zoom each day discussing various deals while building a great friendship and sense of mutual respect and admiration for each other.
It wasn’t until we spent time in person again at South By Southwest in 2023 that we realized our feelings for each other extended beyond the professional and platonic.
This created a bit of a panic. I was naturally worried that “crossing the line” might sabotage a great professional relationship and of course I was worried about what both existing and potential future LPs might think.
It seemed like there were only two options:
Do the professional thing - ignore the feelings, keep working together, and hope that our difference in geography would make the spark fade.
Or
Jump in.
After a few weeks of wrestling with this conundrum and weighing the pros and cons with my "council of boys" - I asked Sam to take her first non-business trip to see me in LA. The trip was supposed to be a long weekend, but the energy was so good that I kept asking her to reschedule her return flight, and she ended up staying with me for almost 2 weeks. It was obvious to both of us that we had something special.
During 2023 Sam constantly traveled back and forth between Toronto and LA. We committed to keeping our public image absolutely professional, and apparently did a great job as evidenced by multiple guys at industry conferences we attended blatantly hitting on her in front of me 😂
By the end of that “year of experiment” we were convinced that being a couple made us even better business partners and so we took our relationship to the next level: In February 2024 Sam broke the lease on her Toronto apartment and drove her Lexus sedan from Toronto to LA by herself, carrying the only things that mattered to her - her clothes and about 10 boxes of her favorite books. We were now living together full time in my LA Arts District loft, which, despite being a great bachelor pad, was absolutely too small for two people.
As someone who deeply cares about the work they do and is almost always thinking about it, having a partner who did the same work that I did unlocked a new level of intimacy. In prior relationships I always felt like my partner could never really know or understand “work Brom”, no matter how hard I tried to explain who he was. But Sam got to see every side of me. I loved having a partner who was "acting in the same movie" as I was. And not being able to hide parts of me away at work made the relationship more transparent than I’d ever experienced.
While I felt like I was thriving by blending my personal and professional life, I became increasingly aware of the stigma that many people in the startup world have against it. Despite something like 1/3rd of all businesses in the US being ‘family owned’, the bulk of investors in Silicon Valley view founders being in a romantic relationship as a red flag. Here are some obvious reasons why that view is wrong:
Despite not going out of our way to look for couple founders, our Fund I ended up with 3 companies that have married couples as full-time, 50/50 cofounders, and two other companies where a founder’s spouse is employed in a non-trivial role at the company. And while there isn’t data to definitely prove that couple cofounders are better, those three married couple-led companies rank among the top 5 highest portcos by markup in our first fund.
Back to Sam and me.
After a whirlwind 2024 and first half of 2025, during which we invested in 11 companies, did a first close on our second fund and moved to San Francisco, I realized that I didn’t want what Sam and I had to end. As someone who grew up constantly moving to different states and countries and who watched their parents go through a painful divorce, I’ve always naturally felt that everything has a very short shelf life and that you should expect your life to get turned on its head every 2 to 3 years.
But I will never forget the feeling I had earlier this Summer, hugging Sam from behind while she was brewing our morning coffee, and realizing that I wanted this forever.
On September 19th I took her for a walk up to Sutro Heights at sunset, wrapped a blade of glass around her finger (an ode to her favorite artist, Lady Gaga) and asked her to marry me.
On December 11th, we got married in San Francisco.
I feel incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful and brilliant partner in both life and business. We’re both thrilled to be “out” as Mr. and Mrs. Rector: lovers and investors in the coolest companies you’ve ever heard of.
PS - if you’re looking for love, consider getting off of Tinder, Hinge and Bumble, and instead taking more random calls from LinkedIn connections - it worked for us!
Stay up to date on Human 3 - the new epoch of health, wellbeing and performance