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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?

#101

Post by dang »

home_boi wrote: post #82
ergothus wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Purely for the purposes of clarity: Is that you'd hold any founder expecting a baby to the same standard, male or female? (though it is normally easier to recognize a pregnant woman than someone with a pregnant partner) Or do you see the load you describe falling primarily upon women?

Females have to face the physical/mental side effects of pregnancy in addition to the complications of child care. Females become the primary care taker at higher rates than males. Primary care takers are less productive and less devoted. This isn't just a coincidence. Females have the choice of having a child while males do not. Males only have the choice to give a female the choice of having a child with the male.…

This comment is heading dangerously down a generic ideological tangent, which usually means yet another tedious flamewar. I'm tempted to detach it and mark it off-topic, but will hold off.

In general on HN, it's better to keep one's comments anchored in something specific about the original story than to go off into provocative generalization. There's nearly always an ideological agenda behind the latter, and those are of interest to no one except holders of the same agenda and its opposite.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#102

Post by vectorpush »

avoidance123 wrote: post #73
ksenzee wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

These are societal and philosophical concerns. A child's physical development affects how they interact with society as they grow into adults. Should a pregnant woman be able to negatively affect her child's gestation because she can't wait three or six months to start a business? Additionally, should parents allow themselves to devote their attention to a startup over their children? In my opinion: Things that only…

Your societal impact concerns are not specific to women. The same supposed issue arises in a situation where a male CEO is not present to be a father figure or role model for their child (thus condemning them to an inevitable life of crime and drug abuse... or whatever)

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#104

Post by __abc »

infinite8s wrote: post #99
rayiner wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A metric major fuck ton. [Citation needed] I don't have have reliable scientific evidence either way, but my speculation is that the vast majority of differences in outcomes between kids can be attributed to: genetics, nutrition, parental wealth, and education (in that order). I've found no reason to believe that "hav[ing] an active role in your child's life" (versus hiring good nannies and teachers to do the same)…

I think the key qualifier to "A metric major fuck ton" in the gp comment is the statement immediately afterward: "If you truly want to be present and have an active role in your child's life, growth, development et al it's going to force your priorities to shuffle around." Of course with sufficient money you can buy excellent replacement care. I would slightly reorder you attribution list, putting parental wealth at…

Yeah, that's why the qualifier is there. I COMPLETELY agree yo can outsource that. Hell, provably even provide a materially better outcome however, if you/your are involved, it takes you shifting priorities.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#105

Post by jackweirdy »

NTDF9 wrote: post #96
mentat wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A man cannot go become a CEO if he's broke and needs to feed his family Your biases are showing. But really, I'm not sure what you're saying here. People living in partnership with others can raise children AND do other things. This is not "having it all", this is working hard to make your life what you want it to be.

> Your biases are showing. - As much as we want it, a man can never become pregnant. The woman will have to do the pregnancy part. - As much as we want it, a pregnant woman can never work at her optimal. The man will have to do the optimal working part. So, if the partnership desires a kid, it means pregnancy for the woman and for the man to provide stability in those times. Is this a personal bias or reality?

What is "Optimal Working" and why should we believe that anyone is doing it at the moment? I think you're chasing some fantasy perfection state that isn't really achievable

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#106

Post by tryitnow »

Really people? Remove the fact that she's pregnant from the picture, instead focus on the fact that she's unlikely to be highly involved in the company for approximately 6 to nine months regardless of the reason. Sometimes that happens to founders. Then evaluate the investment opportunity conditioned on this.

That could be fine. Or not. I may evaluate the company as simply having a temporarily inactive co-founder. That's hardly uncommon. Not ideal, but if everything else is in place (remaining team can meet or exceed expectations) then, sure I'd invest.

And no, I don't expect founders to put in 15 hours days as a rule. That means you're hardly getting adequate sleep and will end up making moronic decisions. That's frankly idiotic. I don't care how much you work. Focus on the metrics that matter. Some startups require 10+ days, some don't. Some require greater time commitments in some periods and less in other periods.

There's so much rigid thinking in the comments about this story.

Learn to focus on the most relevant aspects of the problem. Namely, a major life event is coming up - is there a reasonable plan in place to handle it? If yes, then proceed to follow your usual path of analyzing an investment.

It's funny how men get so irrational when faced with a woman's pregnancy.

I would say this though. It's incumbent on the founders to initiate this discussion. Just like it's important for an employee who is expecting to take significant time off to put in a request well in advance.

tldr; I don't care if you're planning to take two months off to go surfing or to have a kid. Just let me know how you plan to handle that and I'll evaluate your company on its merits.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#107

Post by NTDF9 »

jackweirdy wrote: post #105
NTDF9 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your biases are showing. - As much as we want it, a man can never become pregnant. The woman will have to do the pregnancy part. - As much as we want it, a pregnant woman can never work at her optimal. The man will have to do the optimal working part. So, if the partnership desires a kid, it means pregnancy for the woman and for the man to provide stability in those times. Is this a personal bias or reality?

What is "Optimal Working" and why should we believe that anyone is doing it at the moment? I think you're chasing some fantasy perfection state that isn't really achievable

Here's an experiment:

Person A: A 6 ft man

Person B: A 5 ft man

In basketball, even if person B trains for 23 hours/day more than person A, he is impeded because of his height.

Is there a guarantee that person A will do better JUST because of his height? No

Is there a guarantee that person B will do better JUST because of more hours invested in training? No

But person A can train and become better whereas person B cannot change anything.

Such is the nature of physical differences.

Person B would be better served playing a sport that doesn't require height...aka, Basketball is not "Optimal" for person B.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#108

Post by blablablame »

ksenzee wrote: post #54
Lawtonfogle wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>because every pregnancy is different, and every woman is different, and every family is different. You cannot safely assume anything about a pregnant woman. So her pregnancy can't help you reliably judge whether she can handle being CEO. Couldn't this logic be applied to almost anything about any person and thus leave one saying that nothing can reliably be used to judge whether someone can handle being a CEO?

No, I'm simply saying that pregnancy is a less reliable guide than you might assume if you have a fixed idea of what it means to be a pregnant woman.

Man here, wife went through hell in her pregnancy so I might be biased, but talking with other pregnant women in our lives, in general, they are happy to be pregnant, but from that, the feeling is more skewed to the complaining/problems than the I can do this mentality. More 'I want to lay in bed all day' vs 'things to do, lets hush hush hush, do things, build stuff'.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#109

Post by Diamons »

CalRobert wrote: post #97
Diamons wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think women make better caretakers. A father can stay home and be the caretaker, but I think a mother will have a more positive nurturing influence on the child's life if she is there as much as she can be. If you can afford a nanny, I wouldn't think you'd be raising funding.

"I think women make better caretakers. A father can stay home and be the caretaker, but I think a mother will have a more positive nurturing influence on the child's life if she is there as much as she can be." You can think that, but it is most certainly not going to be accepted as fact by the many caretaker fathers out there. Nor, I believe, can you take it for granted that mothers in heterosexual two-parent househ…

Yes. Nature and evolution itself tells us that its optimal to be raised by a mother and a father. To argue otherwise would be to argue against evolution.

Re: Can you fundraise in Silicon Valley while pregnant?

#110

Post by x0x0 »

Diamons wrote: post #109
CalRobert wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I think women make better caretakers. A father can stay home and be the caretaker, but I think a mother will have a more positive nurturing influence on the child's life if she is there as much as she can be." You can think that, but it is most certainly not going to be accepted as fact by the many caretaker fathers out there. Nor, I believe, can you take it for granted that mothers in heterosexual two-parent househ…

Yes. Nature and evolution itself tells us that its optimal to be raised by a mother and a father. To argue otherwise would be to argue against evolution.

All studies of outcomes ignored, naturally...
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