Forbes colleague George Anders recently profiled the husband-and-wife founders of Houzz, who began working together at their kitchen table five years ago. The Israeli immigrants were casting about for ideas for remodeling their four-bedroom ranch house in Palo Alto when they decided to start up Houzz as a place where homeowners could search for design ideas. Today the founders, Adi Tarako and Alan Cohen, who have three children, are successfully juggling the business and family life; she is CEO; he is president of the business, whose site attracts more than 25 million visitors each month and is now valued at more than $2 billion. The couple, who owns nearly a third of the company, are together worth at least half a billion dollars.
That puts them among a very elite group of wealthy entrepreneurs who have not only created billion dollar companies but have also done it while working alongside their spouses.
There are millions of couples who start businesses together in the U.S. One decade-old study from the National Federation of Independent Businesses estimated that there are 1.2 million husband and wife teams running companies. The organization says that number, if anything, is higher now. “It’s an extremely common arrangement among our members. Small businesses require all hands on deck, with husbands and wives often sharing responsibilities,” said NFIB spokesperson Jack Mozloom.
Yet only a very small subset, based on Forbes research, have achieved great wealth, and fewer still have managed to do so and still stay married. In the U.S. Forbes found 8 billion-dollar couples, all but one of whom work alongside each other and all but three of whom live in California.
Among these power couples are Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who have been doing business together since the 1970s. They own one of the nation’s biggest producers of mandarin oranges, pistachios and pomegranates, bottled water company Fiji Water and flower delivery service Teleflora. Korean immigrants Do Won and Jin Sook Chang, who settled in Southern California in 1981, own and run $3.7 billion (estimated sales) fast fashion retailer
Immigrants born in China (Andrew) and Burma (Peggy), the Cherngs met at Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas, then headed to the University of Missouri, where Andrew got a master's degree in applied mathematics and Peggy a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Andrew moved to California to work at his cousin’s restaurant and later opened his own sit-down restaurant Panda Inn with his father in 1973; a decade later he and Peggy, who gave up her software-development career (
When asked about how the couple makes it work, Peggy, who is co-CEO and co-chairman of Panda, said, “We have learned over the years to recognize each other's strengths and opportunities so that we know when it's best to lead and when it's best to be led."
In a 2013 Fortune interview she elaborated, admitting that being married doesn’t always make working together easy. “We had to learn how to resolve business disagreements,” she said, “It’s not ‘Your way is best’ or ‘My way is best.’ The Cherngs, who reportedly married in 1975, will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary next year.
There would be still other billion dollar husband-and-wife teams if not for death and divorce. Billionaires Steve and Elaine Wynn cofounded casino empire Wynn Resorts three decades ago. They divorced, remarried and divorced again for good in 2010. As part of the settlement, Elaine received 11 million shares of the company. Today, she owns 9.5% of the company and sits on the board.
Meanwhile, billionaires Doris Fisher and Diane Hendricks founded their respective businesses, the clothing retailer Gap and roofing company ABC Supply, with their late husbands.
Below is a complete list of today's billion dollar couples:
(Readers note: post has been revised to include Tom & Judy Love who were on the slideshow but not reflected below)
Stan Kroenke & Ann Walton Kroenke, $10.7 billion
Don & Jin Sook Chang, $5.2 billion
Marion & Michael Ilitch, $4 billion
Stewart & Lynda Resnick, $3.8 billion
Tom & Judy Love, $3.3 billion
Andrew & Peggy Cherng, $2.9 billion
Bharat Desai and Neerja Sethi, $2.4 billion
Weilei Dai and Sehat Sutardja, $1.2 billion
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