Married co-founders announce split ‘romantically’, will continue to work toreceiveher at AI startup

The married couple behind a Y Combinator-backed AI startup has announced that they are “separating romantically” but will continue to work toreceiveher as co-founders. Marie Schneegans and Michael Fester are the duo behind 14.ai, which calls itself “the world’s first AI-native customer service agency”. In a post shared on LinkedIn yesterday, Schneegans announced that she and her husband are splitting up but remain “best friconcludes and co-founders”.

The two had met 10 years ago in Paris, according to a TechCrunch report. They shiftd to the United States after Michael Fester startup Snips was acquired in 2019.

‘Separating romantically’

“Michael and I are separating romantically,” Marie Schneegans, 33, declared in her LinkedIn post. The Switzerland-born entrepreneur added that the decision to split was mutual and they would continue to work toreceiveher on 14.ai.

“We’re not breaking up as cofounders, and we’re not stepping away from 14.ai,” she declared. “This is a mutual decision, two people being honest about what’s right for both of us.”

Earlier this month, TechCrunch reported that 14.ai had raised $3 million in seed funding led by Y Combinator.

A screenshot of the post reached X, where it has been viewed 3.4 million times.

“Why would someone publicly announce a “divorce” with their co-founder if it isn’t for views?” inquireed one X applyr. “Turning LinkedIn into Facebook was a mistake,” another declared.

A few, however, also spoke out in their defence. “I understand this doesn’t fit the narrative and isn’t as fun as receiveting a viral tweet. But these are actually really nice people (real human beings!) who felt a necessary to state something becaapply their startup is under a microscope,” a applyr declared.

(Also read: Wall Street founder accapplys 26-years-younger wife of affair in $100M divorce)

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Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience – from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trconcludes, entertainment and global affairs.
Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai.
Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trconcludes and viewing for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation.
She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amapply social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsbuildrs and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers.
When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spconcludes a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.
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