Boomerang CEOs

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Lane and Tara Nemeth: One brings money and experience; the other brings a willingness to learn Ericmillette.com

Nicole and Steven Bernand: "Things are starting to smooth out," he says, "but there have been times when we've wanted to kill each other" Ericmillette.com

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Five years ago, Tara bought a puppy, and Lane saw an opportunity to develop safe and healthful pet products and sell them via Tupperware (TUP)-style sales representatives, the way Discovery had sold toys. Tara was in graduate school studying psychology, and abandoned her search for a job. The two founded Petlane in 2004.

Theirs is clearly a mentor-protégé relationship. Lane brings money, knowledge, and experience, while Tara contributes mainly a willingness to learn. "If we have a disagreement we can't resolve, I'm the CEO and I have the final say," Lane says. Tara rotates from job to job, learning all aspects of running a business, from inventory management to bookkeeping, and figuring out what she does best. Currently she's director of sales: Her background in psychology makes her an adept coach of new reps. She's also the company's product guru and its face at trade shows. Tara says of her mother: "She gives me room to make decisions and run with them but will help me when I need it. I've never had that balance before."

Other parents expect their young partners to ante up at least some startup capital. At Late July, Steve told Nicole that although he'd contribute most of the funds, she would have to "put in to the point where she can't put in any more." Says Steve: "I wanted to make sure her interest level was where it should be and that she saw it as a real endeavor." The financial structure has helped them forge a partnership based on consensus decision-making. Steve calls his daughter Nicky, even at work, where she refers to him as Dad. But they both admit to being strong-willed and competitive. A situation in which her opinions carried less weight or where both didn't feel free to go at each other toe to toe probably wouldn't have worked. "In my personal life I always defer to him. At work I don't," says Nicole. "He is CEO and I'm president, and if I feel strongly about something I will fight for it, and so will he."

MOM'S NOT ALWAYS RIGHT

Kicking in cash is one way for a child to gain equal footing. Having special knowledge is another. That's how it works for Sondra and Allyson Ames, founders of Wonderland Bakery, a $1 million Newport Beach (Calif.) novelty retail bakery chain with 22 employees. Allyson, who was gleaning tips from the Food Network while her schoolmates were still watching cartoons, went from high school to culinary school, where she dreamed up an elaborately themed retail bakery—think Willy Wonka meets Alice in Wonderland—that would sell bright-colored confections along with gifts such as baking sets and aprons. The 22-year-old asked her mother, who earlier had founded and sold Global Exchange Network, a business-to-business bartering service, to help turn the imaginary store into a company.

Sondra, 53, borrowed against her house to raise startup capital. But Allyson's creations, from cupcakes topped with candy martini glasses to Manolo Blahnik shoe cookies, make the business special. So the two have a partnership in which Sondra, as CEO, handles functions such as hiring, training, and lease agreements, while Allyson rules the kitchen as president and executive chef.

Making the move from mother and daughter to partners was challenging nonetheless. "At the beginning it was difficult to have my mom tell me what to do in a business environment," says Allyson. "We had to develop two different relationships, the professional relationship and the fun one." And Sondra had never had a partner before and found working together to be harder than she expected. "We butted heads a few times at the start because we both wanted to be in charge," she says.

Mom finally loosened her grip when she saw she didn't always know best. Bottom-line-oriented by nature, Sondra typically looked for moves to save a few dollars. But she didn't understand how a professional kitchen works, and some of her decisions backfired. She purchased lemon flavoring in quantities that the business would never be able to use, and over Allyson's objections insisted on buying a $5,500 dough-rolling machine.