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Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

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Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#21

Post by NhanH »

mgrennan wrote: post #9

This is a great question. It forces the greater question: Can you "Be Dedicated" and be more than one thing. Silicon valley seems to believe: You can't be a CEO and pregnant. You can't be a lead programmer and old (> 30). You can't love both Linux and Windows. You can't be Democrat and vote for a Republican. How did we become so decided.

"Dedicated" as an attribute requires many other things. But in this case (and your first example), it's a matter of days having only 24 hours. And it's much different than the rest of your post

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#23

Post by CalRobert »

cdmcmahon wrote: post #16
wolfgke wrote: post #4

Can you fundraise if you openly say that you have a time-intensive hobby that you will under no circumstances give up for working on your company? Thanks to modern contraceptive methods getting pregnant is a choice. The same as doing a time-intense hobby. If you would not finance someone who openly says that he/she will not give up his/her time-intense hobby for the company, isn't this the same as not financing peopl…

So similarly, potential investors should screen all men to make sure they and their partner aren't expecting children anytime soon? This would maybe be a defensible* position if it were applied equally, but it's not. *But actually it's not really. In today's world, with varying family types and options for care, it is possible for people to have children and give their all to a company. For many (most?) people that i…

Not to mention that one has to wonder what the point of all this is if we're going to deny people one of the most basic aspects of the human experience. I'm all for family planning, smaller families for the sake of the planet, etc. but c'mon, are we going to tell ambitious people they can pretty much _never_ have kids? Aren't these the sort of folks we should be hoping _do_ make copies of themselves?

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#24

Post by drpp »

joshAg wrote: post #5
drpp wrote: post #2

I wrote an article about how my co-founder is pregnant and raising funding for our company, Sourcery. Investors are hesitant to bring up the issue in conversation for fear of coming off as an insensitive brute who questions a women's commitment to her company, but this is an important issue to address upfront. I try to lay out how we are preparing for this moment together.

Do you bring up the pregnancy when you meet with investors? I wonder if that would help or hurt compared to not mentioning it at all.

Some have tried to hide this, and there are links to such accounts. But, "Na’ama is direct. She’s not the kind of person to pretend about anything. In the third trimester, her condition is nearly impossible to hide anyway. And yet surprisingly, most investors have scrupulously avoided discussing the fact."

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#25

Post by jlukanta »

xiphias wrote: post #3

I thought that money raising is for people who put all their effort into making a fast-growing company and need money to make the growth even faster. It's about choosing not having a life in return for the possibility for creating a big company. I have no problem with that person being a male or female. But I can't imagine any person (mom or dad) being able to put 15 hours a day to a company with the baby after the b…

They could if they have live-in relatives helping out, such as the grandparents of the baby.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#26

Post by ksenzee »

xchip wrote: post #7

Any stress the mother suffers will be passed down to the baby... "There are some data to show that higher chronic stressors in women and poor coping skills to deal with those stressors may be associated with lower birth weight and with delivering earlier," says Ann Borders, MD, MPH, MSc. She is an OB/GYN in the obstetrics and gynecology department, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, at Evanston Hospital, NorthShore…

That is the mother's concern. It is not remotely the concern of anyone she is doing business with.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#27

Post by joshAg »

drpp wrote: post #24
joshAg wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you bring up the pregnancy when you meet with investors? I wonder if that would help or hurt compared to not mentioning it at all.

Some have tried to hide this, and there are links to such accounts. But, "Na’ama is direct. She’s not the kind of person to pretend about anything. In the third trimester, her condition is nearly impossible to hide anyway. And yet surprisingly, most investors have scrupulously avoided discussing the fact."

I read that, but I can't tell if you meant that she's direct about it but waits until/if the investors bring it up, or if she brings it up with every investor, like Ms. Miller's adviser suggested.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#28

Post by rsmsky1 »

This is a serious question as a woman who has never been pregnant and perhaps not that knowledgable about pregnancies. Doesn't giving birth render you incapacitated for a certain period of time even if everything goes well and there's no guarantee after giving birth things will return to normal. Even in cases where one's life isn't at risk, there's a high risk of postpartum depression, etc. It seems very unfair to me that women have to deal with such things. I hope one day women won't need to have periods without taking any additional health risks and also that it will be easier for women to have surrogate baby carriers.

Another serious question is wouldn't a nursery at work be disruptive if there is a lot of crying, etc. or how will it be set up so as not to bother people who are working.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#29

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #15
xchip wrote: post #7

Any stress the mother suffers will be passed down to the baby... "There are some data to show that higher chronic stressors in women and poor coping skills to deal with those stressors may be associated with lower birth weight and with delivering earlier," says Ann Borders, MD, MPH, MSc. She is an OB/GYN in the obstetrics and gynecology department, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, at Evanston Hospital, NorthShore…

What's the actual long-term impact on the child?

[deleted]

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#30

Post by akud »

In my experience, people tend to seriously underestimate the amount of work a baby takes, and the strain it adds to relationships, work life, and emotional health. I certainly did.

I think it's reasonable for investors to wonder if a person's commitment won't change when they have a baby. I would advise the authors that they really can't forsee what their priorities will be like when the baby comes. It sounds trite, but a baby changes your whole life. It will add an incredible amount of stress that will probably make you reevaluate your priorities.

If I were an investor, I would hold off until they had the baby, and it was at least a few months old. Then both the founders could really know how committed they still were to the company.

[edit: grammar]

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