Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n- Max and Elena Emma got divorced in 2014, three years after starting their bookkeeping business, BooXkeeping.<\/li>\n
- They designed their divorce to be as low-conflict as possible: no lawyers and a peaceful filing.<\/li>\n
- Since their divorce, BooXkeeping has grown into a franchise with 16 locations and $1.4 million in annual revenue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
When Max and Elena Emma, the cofounders of BooXkeeping<\/a>, a bookkeeping franchise, decided to get divorced in 2014, the story could easily have gone the way so many others do: lawyers, custody battles, staff forced to pick sides, a once-promising business gutted by a personal split.\u00a0<\/p>\nBut Max, BooXkeeping\u2019s CEO, and Elena, the company\u2019s CPO, had already decided that, for all the emotion between them, this wasn\u2019t going to be that story. \u201cWe decided that we\u2019re not going to get lawyers, we\u2019re not going to get anything,\u201d Elena tells Entrepreneur in a new interview. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a very peaceful divorce. We file papers, and everything else is just a verbal agreement.\u201d<\/p>\nMax Emma. Credit: BooXkeeping<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Elena](\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Elena-Emma.jpg?w=1024\")
Elena Emma. Credit: BooXkeeping<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBooXkeeping\u2019s beginnings<\/h2>\n
Max and Elena were both immigrants to the U.S. Max arrived in 1993 from Russia, and Elena came in 1999 from Ukraine. They met in San Diego at a mutual friend\u2019s birthday party, three weeks after Elena arrived in the U.S., started dating two years later and got married two years after that. <\/p>\n
Max marks July 3, 2002 as the last day he ever worked for someone. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe celebration of July 4th being an Independence Day has a double meaning for me, as I celebrate this it as my personal Independence Day as well,\u201d Max explained. <\/p>\n
He started a landscaping business with Elena shortly after that and grew it to 96 employees, only to hit a wall when the 2008 recession started. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a choice but to declare bankruptcy, both business and personal,\u201d Max says. That experience gave them a shared conviction: the numbers matter, but the relationships matter more.<\/p>\n
A couple of years later, they tried again. Max and Elena built BooXkeeping from a garage in San Diego in 2011 with a six\u2011year\u2011old and a one\u2011year\u2011old at home, Max doing business development while Elena nursed the baby and closed the books.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When their marriage began to unravel a few years after BooXkeeping launched, their first move was to protect the people around them. They had employees working out of what used to be their children\u2019s nursery; once they chose to separate, they rented an office so no one would have to navigate a domestic breakup in a former family bedroom. \u201cWe always prioritize relationships before anything else,\u201d Elena says. \u201cEven if the relationship form changes. The people aspect of this was important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Max remembers their coworkers wondering whether they needed to call 911 when the discussion got loud. \u201cSometimes we talk, and we get emotional; it doesn\u2019t mean that we are fighting,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re just arguing, but in a good way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elena is less diplomatic: \u201cIt\u2019s yelling, Max,\u201d she says. \u201cBe honest, and do not put the picture of a perfectly divorced couple. No. We yell at each other\u2026 but it\u2019s been many years, and we\u2019re still here doing it. Somehow it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why this divorce was different<\/h2>\n
The thing that tethered them through the split was a shared sense of responsibility \u2014 to their two sons and to the business they both describe as a third child. Early on, they sat their sons down and promised them their divorce wouldn\u2019t look like the ones they had heard about from other families. \u201cWe promised both of them that they will not have to decide who they want to be with, and who is right, who is wrong,\u201d Max says. \u201cTo this day, it did not happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The same logic extended to BooXkeeping: Elena calls it \u201cthis third child that we\u2019re growing together.\u201d \u201cWhen people ask me, what\u2019s your business? I say I have this business that\u2019s one year younger than my second kid,\u201d she says. \u201cJust like with our kids, we made promises that they wouldn\u2019t have to choose. We work it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
That commitment has outlasted the marriage itself. Max still lives in San Diego; Elena is based in Barcelona, where she\u2019s a professor and crisis coach. They spend all the holidays together, and Max flies to Spain for milestones \u2014 this year, their youngest\u2019s sixteenth birthday. \u201cWe start businesses, we end businesses,\u201d Max says. \u201cBut we needed each other. We still do, to get to the next level of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professionally, their post-divorce years have coincided with BooXkeeping\u2019s most ambitious chapter yet. The company now manufactures financial statements for freelancers and small to medium\u2011sized businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The firm has grown to 16 franchisees across the United States and is the preferred bookkeeping provider for more than 100 franchise brands, from emerging concepts to systems with hundreds or thousands of units.<\/p>\n
BooXkeeping\u2019s culture<\/h2>\n
The culture they talk about often is directly informed by the way they chose to end, and then renegotiate, their marriage. They look for people, whether employees or franchisees, who can exist in tension without blowing things up. Max says he filters every potential franchisee through a simple, personal test: \u201cDo I want to hang out with this person outside of work?\u201d If the answer is no, the deal doesn\u2019t move forward, no matter how much capital is on the table. \u201cCulture is huge for us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Internally, that culture looks like long\u2011tenured staff who started in entry\u2011level roles and now run operations and accounting, and a leadership team that\u2019s unafraid of conflict but disciplined about coming back from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, relationship first,\u201d Elena says of the guiding principle that let her keep working with her ex\u2011husband. \u201cWe\u2019ve known each other for way too many years, and we\u2019ve been through quite a lot of ups and downs together as a couple\u2026 It\u2019s just a different form of relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also looks like two very different temperaments that are learning to share a steering wheel. Max is the one who wants to sprint; Elena is the one who worries about how fast the company can actually absorb growth.<\/p>\n
None of this is neat, and they don\u2019t pretend otherwise. The arguments still flare up. What remains is an unusual kind of loyalty to the idea that a relationship doesn\u2019t have to end just because a marriage does, and that a company born out of that relationship doesn\u2019t have to be collateral damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The result has been lucrative. BooXkeeping did $1.4 million in revenue last year and is on track to do more than $2 million by the end of this year. The goal is to double the number of franchisees by the end of the year, from 16 locations to 35.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI honor my commitments, and I\u2019ve committed to this business, to making it happen,\u201d Elena says. \u201cIt was a very clear, conscious decision for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Max puts it more simply: \u201cI don\u2019t regret it because I don\u2019t think we would be able to get where we are without each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\nKey Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n- Max and Elena Emma got divorced in 2014, three years after starting their bookkeeping business, BooXkeeping.<\/li>\n
- They designed their divorce to be as low-conflict as possible: no lawyers and a peaceful filing.<\/li>\n
- Since their divorce, BooXkeeping has grown into a franchise with 16 locations and $1.4 million in annual revenue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
When Max and Elena Emma, the cofounders of BooXkeeping<\/a>, a bookkeeping franchise, decided to get divorced in 2014, the story could easily have gone the way so many others do: lawyers, custody battles, staff forced to pick sides, a once-promising business gutted by a personal split.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Max, BooXkeeping\u2019s CEO, and Elena, the company\u2019s CPO, had already decided that, for all the emotion between them, this wasn\u2019t going to be that story. \u201cWe decided that we\u2019re not going to get lawyers, we\u2019re not going to get anything,\u201d Elena tells Entrepreneur in a new interview. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a very peaceful divorce. We file papers, and everything else is just a verbal agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n Max and Elena were both immigrants to the U.S. Max arrived in 1993 from Russia, and Elena came in 1999 from Ukraine. They met in San Diego at a mutual friend\u2019s birthday party, three weeks after Elena arrived in the U.S., started dating two years later and got married two years after that. <\/p>\n Max marks July 3, 2002 as the last day he ever worked for someone. <\/p>\n \u201cThe celebration of July 4th being an Independence Day has a double meaning for me, as I celebrate this it as my personal Independence Day as well,\u201d Max explained. <\/p>\n He started a landscaping business with Elena shortly after that and grew it to 96 employees, only to hit a wall when the 2008 recession started. <\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a choice but to declare bankruptcy, both business and personal,\u201d Max says. That experience gave them a shared conviction: the numbers matter, but the relationships matter more.<\/p>\n A couple of years later, they tried again. Max and Elena built BooXkeeping from a garage in San Diego in 2011 with a six\u2011year\u2011old and a one\u2011year\u2011old at home, Max doing business development while Elena nursed the baby and closed the books.\u00a0<\/p>\n When their marriage began to unravel a few years after BooXkeeping launched, their first move was to protect the people around them. They had employees working out of what used to be their children\u2019s nursery; once they chose to separate, they rented an office so no one would have to navigate a domestic breakup in a former family bedroom. \u201cWe always prioritize relationships before anything else,\u201d Elena says. \u201cEven if the relationship form changes. The people aspect of this was important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Max remembers their coworkers wondering whether they needed to call 911 when the discussion got loud. \u201cSometimes we talk, and we get emotional; it doesn\u2019t mean that we are fighting,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re just arguing, but in a good way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Elena is less diplomatic: \u201cIt\u2019s yelling, Max,\u201d she says. \u201cBe honest, and do not put the picture of a perfectly divorced couple. No. We yell at each other\u2026 but it\u2019s been many years, and we\u2019re still here doing it. Somehow it works.\u201d<\/p>\n The thing that tethered them through the split was a shared sense of responsibility \u2014 to their two sons and to the business they both describe as a third child. Early on, they sat their sons down and promised them their divorce wouldn\u2019t look like the ones they had heard about from other families. \u201cWe promised both of them that they will not have to decide who they want to be with, and who is right, who is wrong,\u201d Max says. \u201cTo this day, it did not happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The same logic extended to BooXkeeping: Elena calls it \u201cthis third child that we\u2019re growing together.\u201d \u201cWhen people ask me, what\u2019s your business? I say I have this business that\u2019s one year younger than my second kid,\u201d she says. \u201cJust like with our kids, we made promises that they wouldn\u2019t have to choose. We work it out.\u201d<\/p>\n That commitment has outlasted the marriage itself. Max still lives in San Diego; Elena is based in Barcelona, where she\u2019s a professor and crisis coach. They spend all the holidays together, and Max flies to Spain for milestones \u2014 this year, their youngest\u2019s sixteenth birthday. \u201cWe start businesses, we end businesses,\u201d Max says. \u201cBut we needed each other. We still do, to get to the next level of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Professionally, their post-divorce years have coincided with BooXkeeping\u2019s most ambitious chapter yet. The company now manufactures financial statements for freelancers and small to medium\u2011sized businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n The firm has grown to 16 franchisees across the United States and is the preferred bookkeeping provider for more than 100 franchise brands, from emerging concepts to systems with hundreds or thousands of units.<\/p>\n The culture they talk about often is directly informed by the way they chose to end, and then renegotiate, their marriage. They look for people, whether employees or franchisees, who can exist in tension without blowing things up. Max says he filters every potential franchisee through a simple, personal test: \u201cDo I want to hang out with this person outside of work?\u201d If the answer is no, the deal doesn\u2019t move forward, no matter how much capital is on the table. \u201cCulture is huge for us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Internally, that culture looks like long\u2011tenured staff who started in entry\u2011level roles and now run operations and accounting, and a leadership team that\u2019s unafraid of conflict but disciplined about coming back from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, relationship first,\u201d Elena says of the guiding principle that let her keep working with her ex\u2011husband. \u201cWe\u2019ve known each other for way too many years, and we\u2019ve been through quite a lot of ups and downs together as a couple\u2026 It\u2019s just a different form of relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n It also looks like two very different temperaments that are learning to share a steering wheel. Max is the one who wants to sprint; Elena is the one who worries about how fast the company can actually absorb growth.<\/p>\n None of this is neat, and they don\u2019t pretend otherwise. The arguments still flare up. What remains is an unusual kind of loyalty to the idea that a relationship doesn\u2019t have to end just because a marriage does, and that a company born out of that relationship doesn\u2019t have to be collateral damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n The result has been lucrative. BooXkeeping did $1.4 million in revenue last year and is on track to do more than $2 million by the end of this year. The goal is to double the number of franchisees by the end of the year, from 16 locations to 35.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI honor my commitments, and I\u2019ve committed to this business, to making it happen,\u201d Elena says. \u201cIt was a very clear, conscious decision for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Max puts it more simply: \u201cI don\u2019t regret it because I don\u2019t think we would be able to get where we are without each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nBooXkeeping\u2019s beginnings<\/h2>\n
Why this divorce was different<\/h2>\n
BooXkeeping\u2019s culture<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"Max](\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Max-Emma.jpg?w=1024\")