Ask HN: Is it normal for founders of startups to not sleep?

I just want to say here, if you are a founder (or THE founder mentioned here) who works hard to the point where other people thinks you're crazy, you are NOT crazy and you are NOT wrong. I am not saying you should completely get rid of rest from your life (because otherwise you will burn out), but working hard on something you believe in and being abnormally passionate about it is nothing to be ashamed of.

To OP: It's not a question of whether it is normal or not. Every startup is different. Sure, there are some mildly successful companies with founders who have "work-life balance", but the ones that are unusually successful normally have founders who are unusually obsessive.

1. Just cause he can send an email at 3AM doesn't mean he wants a response at 3AM

2. Just cause he can stay up for a long time cause he's young and have no other responsibilities doesn't make him any better than anyone else.

3. Playing at tech startups is just playing a video game. Some people get obsessive over it and some people do it casually and most everyone else is in between those two extremes.

Here's the biggest problem with your approach: in today's market, it's a lot harder for startups to recruit and retain good employees than it is for good employees to find new employers.

Just look at the OP: he left an ostensibly good job to join a YC startup and he's already questioning the founder's behavior and competence. When he starts feeling pressured to work insane hours, or completely loses faith in the founder's sanity and competence, how long do you think it will take him to find a new employer that promises something better?

At the risk of being overly harsh, if you feel you're incapable of making "stuff happen" without sending random emails at 3 am in the morning or acting like you don't have control over your schedule and business or terrorizing your employees into believing that they need to be online at all hours, you're probably out of your depth and should be honest with yourself about your readiness to run a business with employees.

A lot of people in the startup community have deluded themselves into believing that "hard work" is the one and only key to success but by and large, successful businesses are built by doing the right things, not by running around for 18 hours a day like a chicken with its head cut off. Thanks to the funding boom, a lot of chickens with their heads cut off are running companies. Folks like the OP work for them at their own peril.

While not "normal" by the true definition, it can be somewhat normal in the startup world. Healthy is a different story and being productive is another question. What you don't know on the flip side is his exact sleep habits which you could be missing altogether. There are some people that nap and work in spurts of time. I have horrible sleep habits sometimes and if I am stressed I can have insomnia at times. But as an example, I used to get up at 3am work until 5 or 6am, take an hour nap, go to the gym for an hour, and then off to work. I would stop working around 5pm come home eat, relax, do housework, whatever else and take a nap until about 10pm. Then get up work till midnight and back to sleep. I found I was much more relaxed and had a ton more energy sleeping in small cycles like that. I also found myself sleeping in cycles on weekends even more. I would work 3-4 hours, nap an hour or two, work 3-4 hours, nap again, and over and over. What works sleep wise for one person may not work for the next, so it is hard to answer your question precisely.

As a side story, the first startup I worked for back in the late 90s during the first bubble the CEO was older and well respected among Internet companies. He had just come off the CEO position at one of the biggest data center companies of the time and was well connected. One day not long after I started I had an idea for the company and randomly emailed him at like 10pm. He responded around 3 or 4am. I was working night shift in the data center and emailed him right back (part with a sense of surprise that he answered me and part with a sense of surprise that it was that early in the morning). Long story short, it ended up becoming an open line of communication between us that if I had a question or needed something I would just email him at 3am and usually have an answer within minutes.

As for the other part regarding the bragging, I would just take that in strides. That's just part immaturity and part probably trying to make co-workers feel guilty for only working 10 hours instead of 11 each day. I think it also comes from the accelerator mentality of grind, grind, grind to have a demo product in a short period of time.

Regardless I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you start seeing problems such as him demanding employees do the same (i.e. expecting you to respond to emails at 3am) or having short temper with employees. I wouldn't worry about the little errors either. It is a startup there are going to be missteps along the way. Most likely his sleep habits will change over time as the company gets it feet well planted.

I have been operating at 3-4 hours sleep for over 2 years. Its not normal, it's obsessive and ridiculous. With that said, you know the person is self-motivated, and disciplined to get the shit done.

Surround yourself with these guys. You'll get far.