Happy Father's Day — especially to those sleep deprived tech Dads
(Know that this is a belated post, between trips, my schedule was off. But the topic has been topical for some time, inspired by my son Jedd—a newly minted dad of two.)
On Sunday, it was Father's Day, a time to raise a glass of fine bourbon (readers know my libation of choice) to all the dads in the tech world. The founders, the operators, the investors, and anyone in the teeter-totter we call this space.
Any dads in new companies experiencing the early throes of fatherhood – you are a brave soul. Juggling startup life with the first, glorious, sleep-deprived weeks and months isn’t easy.
One minute, you're pitching a deck, and your company’s origin story to VCs. You hang up the Zoom, and a minute later you are reading "Moo, Baa, La La La!" to your offspring. Both audiences are hopefully riveted!
The challenges of balancing fatherhood and startup life, it’s tough. Sleep? What sleep? Those startup all-nighters are nothing compared to an all night teething tantrum.
Parenthood in 2024 is fueled by Google searches, AI story time, and the old standards: caffeine and sheer willpower. Work-life balance these days is as hard to achieve as unicorn status.
But when you finally nail that pitch, or code block, you’ll think of your new addition. And that will be worth it. And some time down the road, you’ll (somewhat) successfully explain what you do at work – and you’ll see the gears shift into place. And that's the magic.
So may your cloud and compute costs be minimal, may your babies sleep (eventually), and may your investors see the genius in your bleary-eyed passion. And remember, a little chaos is just part of the startup life – at least you have a cute co-pilot on this crazy journey.