I definitely agree that having a child can be a spectacular forcing function for focus for some. I unfortunately also know folks for whom having a child was the proverbial straw, and whose life fell apart afterwards.
I was running my own company (RFID and industrial automation startup) before him. When I became a dad I found a corporate job. The worry around healthcare costs for a family as an independent were simply too much for me, even back then. All in all, I feel very fortunate in how it all worked out for my family.
It will shake the trees and see if we’re as solid as we think you we lol.
The thought of a cushy corporate job and what it pays compared to the average payout from equity in a startup isn’t too far apart pretty often. I have done stints of consulting when I needed to do market research and it was a nice way to deep dive to find the no brainer things a business would pay for.
Healthcare is no joke. I’m very lucky to be based in Canada from that perspective, even if it’s geospatial further from some tech things that interest me - travel is a fair compromise.
In my case the dip and test didn’t hit until they were 15 months, and it was interesting that I made it over 2 years including the pregnancy before wanting to check in.
I rezzo you have hand keep the itch alive to work on hobby projects. RFID and industrial automation is a cool area that I got to experience alongside someone on a project.
Last but not least happy to receive any parenting advice
My perspective changed when I had kids. And I had kids close together, Matter than friends to boot.
Mostly I realized how’s much time I was wasting to that point in life and I stopped.
It’s perfectly possible to do a startup at any age. Know many people who do and have.
Kids were a perfect prioritization and decision aid in my case. It makes you perfectly serious about doing what needs to be done. Innovation can happen just fine with constraints.
Leading up to it if you don’t have good adult habits and skills you probably some be a lasting successful entrepreneur anyways.
Doing a startup is a lot like being responsible for a baby. Some things need to be done whether you like them or not. Status aren’t just about working on the fun parts.
Getting it right also means making sure you are the kind of example you want to be for them to take their own shots. Sacrificing parents can better a sense of sacrifice in kids and it might be a cycle someone is looking to break.
Would there be more time before kids? Sure. But hard to find people in their 20s a made the most of their time beyond chasing every shiny thing. Generally our standards for how we spend our time are lost in our 20s and improves as we become more well rounded.
You only start getting good and dangerous in your 30s and 40s. It’s why so many vcs are older, they buy the years of young people and are ok if it goes no where.
If you don’t want to be a statistic, you can look at bootstrapping smaller and then growing. There are funds like tinyseed and others that specialize in it.
In your CV 30s you probably have insight in an industry need that you could bang out and have making money per easily to transfer to the next thing. HN might not be the place for this kind of thought especially if it’s orthogonal to the vc echo chamber that attracts a following and needs a decade to see in balance with other options.
If success is freedom of time, attention and resources where you want to put them, the path of startups as you are implying (likely funded) might not be compatible with you.
Todays the youngest you’ll ever be. If not now, then when?