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Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

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Re: Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

#71
We work 6 days a week with sabbath off No fixed hours but try and keep sleep, exercise and weekly update meetings regular. As most people say we either work "all the time" or "not at all". I like it no matter how hard. My partner suffers because the uncertainty eats at him a bit. We're at that stage where people think we are a) nuts to leave high paying jobs or b) deluded that we can actually do this ourselves... So the family/social support is kind of 50/50 which impacts lifestyle a lot. Example: we get free rent at home and our friends have preordered because I think they worry for us and want it to work. I noticed I have less tolerance/ time for mates other than my closest friends who know me best and accept that sometimes the only time to chat is via Skype while waiting at an airport.

Overall, and I'm embarrassed to say this but this is the best lifestyle I could ever imagine. To be successful while living free like this feels almost like its unfairly good, though I'm not sure yet if I'll ever experience that.

We try and do volunteer stuff as when you're a founder it's so easy to be self centred. This helps us look outward and be less wingy bitches when the shit hits the fan.

Re: Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

#72

Playing CS:GO most of the time until a customer needs help or a bug needs to be fixed. I'd like to get a second monitor so I don't have to alt-tab all the time.

Heh, that reminds me of this video: http://youtu.be/uRGljemfwUE

awesome!! thanks internet!!

Re: Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

#73

My wife and I are co-founders and we have a 3 year-old daughter. Our startup is also still in its early stages, so things are pretty busy and often chaotic. I can definitely say that, as a necessity, we've become much better at time management than we ever were before. Our days are fairly planned and we try to keep things routine as much as possible, consistency helps immensely. Also we've managed to ensure everythin…

I'm also married to my cofounder and the experience is a lot like yours... Startup families are very tight:) Some people say "startup is a contact sport" but we prefer "startup is a team sport". Keep being grateful and good luck!

Re: Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

#74

What's struck me is how much it's changed over the last 6 (!) years of building CloudFlare. 2009: "Student Life" / CloudFlare started as a student project. First year felt very academic. Worked irregular hours. Weren't sure what we were supposed to be doing. Lots of research. Lots of change (relocated from Boston to the Bay Area). The whole time we didn't really think we were building a company, we thought we were re…

wow amazing story, thanks for all the detail. Very enjoyable to read. Quick question, whats most influential book you read? (in terms of decisions or directions you took with CloudFlare)

Re: Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

#75
post #60

Working remotely from a house with 5 kids in Florida. Developers are working remotely abroad. I work probably around 60 hours/week, but it is hard to say exactly since work and fun intertwine.

All on postjobfree?

Yes, all on postjobfree.com 4+ years part-time + 3+ years full time.

Re: Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

#76
I work in a small country in Asia on an early stage startup (raised seed), before starting this I was told to have a work-life balance. Go to work, spend 8-10 hours, come back and offload your mind for a few hours. I tried that for a few days, it was horrible.

I wake up at 6am for a morning run, do some meditation, get a quick breakfast and am in the office by 8am. Time moves too quickly (startup relativity?), the next thing I know it's 10pm and everyone has left the office, by 10/11pm i'm out the door, back home and asleep by 12. This is Mon-Sat.

On Sunday a few of my colleagues and I would find a cafe and work there from 10am-7pm then head for dinner or back home.

I haven't seen my bestfriend in 3 months, it didn't work out with my girlfriend because of the working hours and i've missed too many birthday parties to count.

It's not ideal but I found if I really wanted something, I have to be willing to give up something of equal importance to focus. If I could go back I wouldn't change anything about this.

Re: Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

#77

I build and sell an enterprise software product. First 12 months--sales were low. Eventually, I saw sales in the $10-50K/mo range. I'm now seeing $50K-100K/mo. I work alone, I have no investors, and my overhead is minimal. My main luxury is eating out. I don't sweat ordering what I want. I get that appetizer when I want it. I don't wince when a waiter reminds me that refills cost. I live in a modest city apartment. L…

When did you start your business?

Why do you work alone? You can definitely afford an employee now.

Re: Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

#78

Throw away for obvious reasons. My partner kidnapped my children to different country.Three week granparent visit for "trial" will be soon two years. I dont have much options, so I followed. Now I am at country with zero friends and unknown language. I can not order in shop, my children just started talking in foreign language and I need translator. This brings lot of stress, but it is also (sort of) distraction free…

How do you know you are 10x programmer? ;)

Re: Ask HN: Founders, what's your lifestyle like?

#80

Playing CS:GO most of the time until a customer needs help or a bug needs to be fixed. I'd like to get a second monitor so I don't have to alt-tab all the time.

Heh, that reminds me of this video: http://youtu.be/uRGljemfwUE

my god what series is this. its hilarious!

this video is accurate except im talking to customers.

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