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Comment by vasco_ | Hacker News Reader

I disagree. I have 4 kids, I have been married for 15 and my co-founder had a 3 months old when we did YC. And we are from Portugal, so we were away from our families when we went through YC. It was hard and it required sacrifice, but it was certainly worth it and YC was super supportive. Our lives, and the lives of our kids are much better for it.

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I am interested in your story then?

Did you incorporate in US and move your family to the US? Did the pressure to do long hours cease once you finished the YC programme and got funding?

> Our lives, and the lives of our kids are much better for it.

This implies some level of financial success from your participation :-)

Doing a startup when you have kids is (almost) always harder. YC actually makes it easier. Since you are more likely to get funding, you can actually pay yourself at least enough that you don't have to worry if you will be able to make rent. There is advantages to it also. When you have kids you are more aware of the consequences of failing, you value your time more and are less likely to "play house" as PG calls it, in my opinion. We didn't move the family to the US because kids where in school and because they have a better support network in Portugal (granparents, aunts, etc). Regarding the financial success, it depends on whether you care about valuations at this stage which are fairly subjective. In terms of valuation it most certainly did, and since I own stock in my startup, it represented measurable success. More importantly though, the access to better funding and better investors allowed me to have better conditions to focus on growing the company and doing what I love, while providing for my family. Even though we don't have luxuries, the ability to work on something I love without my kids having to feel like they are sacrificing is a luxury in itself.

I would actually go so far to say that if you are doing a startup and have kids, YC is by far your best chance of creating a successful startup without having to go through financial distress. In that sense it is the most family friendly incubator. Having done 4 startups always with kids, I speak of experience.

Very good answer, thank you.

> When you have kids you are more aware of the consequences of failing, you value your time more and are less likely to "play house" as PG calls it, in my opinion.

Yes I agree with this. I think having kids is kind of training for some aspects of start-up life. Definitely in juggling a lot of things at once with limited time.

In terms of success I just wanted to know if it carried on beyond the YC incubator period and it sounds like it has so well done and good luck with it :-)

Thanks, it certainly did help beyond YC. The YC network is fantastic and I have to say the in general the YC brand open many doors. Both with customers, investors and recruiting. I don't know if you are also doing a startup, but if so, good luck :)

You say you disagree, but your experience doesn't support that.

"It was hard and it required sacrifice." because of the implicit bias brought up by the GP. For someone in their mid twenties, no relationship or dependents, moving for 3 months is no big deal. Good, even.

Yes, it's easier to start a company and take risks when the only person you have to worry about is yourself. This is the case in anything you do whether it's starting a company, traveling, trying to become a professional basketball player, etc. Are you suggesting YC help someone take care of their kids?

> Are you suggesting YC help someone take care of their kids?

No, how did you get that? I'm also not suggesting they shouldn't. It's just not at all what I was talking about.

Doing almost anything is easier when not having to raise children. Travel, entertain, work, etc.

Starting a startup is hard and requires sacrifice no matter who you are.

I didn't mean to imply that nobody with a family could do this, but that it's structured in such a way as to be strongly biased against people with families/kids. How many others did you see in YC with children?

We're in the current batch, and two of our founders have children. Children aren't the normal topic of conversation when we're meeting other founders, so it's not always obvious.

In our batch there were at least three teams with founders that had kids. I think that what you mean that is that doing a startup in general is biased against people with kids/families. I agree, but that is mostly because living on a smaller budget with kids is harder. The beautiful thing of a startup is that in most cases you work really hard and at the same take breaks in moments where it is important to be there for your kids. YC is structured in a way where during those three months you kind of take a break with your regular life and focus relentlessly on your company, but I believe that doing that is one of the most brilliant things from YC, it makes all the difference in the world for your chances of success.

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