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Ask HN: How to balance a full time job, family and founding a startup?

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21–27 of 27 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to balance a full time job, family and founding a startup?

#21
Don't.

You should choose your priorities.

Founding a startup is more than a full-time job. Your current job is a full-time job. I don't have experience with kids, but I heard they're quite some work.

In short: choose two out of three, and even then, expect to make some serious sacrifices.

Re: Ask HN: How to balance a full time job, family and founding a startup?

#23

Here’s some suggestions from my recent experience: - hire night nurse a few times a week to catch up on sleep - hire nanny for day time - SNOO Bassinet was a game changer with the baby sleeping 10+ hours - wake up at 4:30am every day and work on startup BEFORE your day job. No one is awake to bother you. Pure focus.

Sleeping 10+ hours!!! That's am achievement, well done

Yes, SNOO was fantastic. Expensive but worth every penny for our sanity.

Re: Ask HN: How to balance a full time job, family and founding a startup?

#24

Realistically the only way I was able to do it was being laid off which forced me to jump in. I had a savings and a wife who believed in me (the savings has helped her belief hah) Family is a no-compromise #1 priority for me under any and all circumstances. I don’t think it is possible for most people to do all three. At Berkeley we had a saying “you can have 2/3 of either: good grades, a social life, and sleep”. Thi…

How much time did you have before your savings would run out and how long did it take before your business was earning enough to cover basic living expenses?

I could go for a while, at least a year. Business still in R&D phase, but I’m not trying to build the next tiktok so that’s ok. :) best of luck whatever you try to do

Re: Ask HN: How to balance a full time job, family and founding a startup?

#25
I’m not convinced almost anyone does this successfully. The people founding startups are able to do so because they have a big enough safety net to obviate a need for full-time employment. Sometimes this is from savings or luck from a previous job, but anecdotally it most often stems from inheriting money from rich families.

Re: Ask HN: How to balance a full time job, family and founding a startup?

#26
post #2

Know that it is possible to do it, lots of people do, and it doesn't require you to be superhuman!

So, you've done this?

Sounds like survivor bias. Doesn't seem like there's enough hours in the day.

Care to site some examples with testimonies from kids that feel like they're getting enough attention and care from their parent that's doing these things?

Re: Ask HN: How to balance a full time job, family and founding a startup?

#27
post #2

Know that it is possible to do it, lots of people do, and it doesn't require you to be superhuman!

So, you've done this? Sounds like survivor bias. Doesn't seem like there's enough hours in the day. Care to site some examples with testimonies from kids that feel like they're getting enough attention and care from their parent that's doing these things?

I have kids, now teens, and I have been running start-ups since long before they were born, and sometimes financed those start-ups by working fairly full-time for clients alongside.

I started my first business before uni, and at uni I regularly worked 18h days and had people work from my room during the day. There was a lot of hard work at times. Maybe a difference was that I put off having kids until quite late, so while things weren't easy, I had a glimpse of stability and agreed with my partner that we could cope!

I do know that I'm not a superhero.

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