Work-life balance for entrepreneurs who are parents

Last night I was awakened by the sound of my son crying. He was sick to his stomach, and he would spend the next few hours retching.

It also meant that one parent would have to stay home to keep an eye on him throughout the day. One of us has a steady job that brings in income and health insurance, while one of us doesn't have a fixed office address and works weird hours on two ventures that have yet to bring in a penny of revenue.

Guess who stays home?

Meanwhile, the educational product startup is on hiatus because my partner's wife just had a baby (their second). When do you think we'll be meeting next to move product development along?

I bring up these examples not to criticize my wife and my partner, but to recognize the reality of juggling a business and family responsibilities: No matter how hard you want to charge forward on your venture, you can only go so far in terms of sacrificing your family's well-being.

Where I draw the line often depends on the availability of childcare. My kids rarely see me at night on weekdays, because I am off at meetings or working on the software startup. But they can manage my absence, as my wife is back from work at 5:30 and can watch them. During the day, they are at school or daycare, which allows both me and my wife to work. But when one child is unable to attend school because of illness, or there's a new baby on the scene, that's when the ventures have to take a backseat to family realities.

When the startup feels stuck

When the startup feels like it's in a rut, or no progress is being made (because of team, money, supplier, distributor, etc.) there are a few options:

1) Hope that the logjam will break up by itself

2) Attack the logjam(s)

3) Attack different problems

4) Hope for an amazing stroke of luck -- someone unexpectedly drops a solution right into your path

5) Other outcome

In my mind, #1 and #4 are possible, but unlikely. Option #2 is warranted, but unpleasant, and sometimes not possible to address (eg., a customer repeatedly blows you off). #3 is a great option -- there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done, and making progress on those fronts can make you feel a lot better.

As for #5, what else did I miss?

How to describe a pre-funded startup in one sentence

A business school classmate emailed me to ask what's going on. My response:

Early-stage startup life: Some days are really good, some are depressingly bad, most filled with uncertainty, all characterized by poverty.

The financial bar vs. the courage bar

A great quote from Ben Horowitz's blog:

Over the past 10 years, technological advances dramatically lowered the financial bar for starting a new company, but the courage bar for building a great company remains as high as it has ever been.

The quote comes at the end of his post about leaders making tough decisions. Well worth a read.

(via Hacker News)

The six-month startup

A little over two months ago I finished business school. Since then, a lot of friends, classmates, former colleagues and family members have been asking "what's next?"

The short answer: Startups.

A slightly longer answer: I am working on two startup ventures, and seeking some consulting work on the side to help pay the bills.

Both of the startups are at an early stage of development. One of them, which I will simply call the “tech startup,” won’t turn into a full-time endeavor until early 2012 owing to prior commitments among the team. But we have already begun work, and are thick in the ideation phase. The ideas are coming fast and furious, and we are constantly iterating upon them.

Then there is the other venture, which I am calling the six-month startup. Unlike the tech startup, the six-month startup is not software. It is centered around a real-world product, which myself and another partner hope to design, build and launch in a six-month period. Technology will come into play, but during design, marketing and order processing, as opposed to the operation of the product (there are no embedded software or other electronics involved). Our idea was hatched in mid-July, and we set a goal of getting the product to market by Christmas. We already have a good idea of the product features and have a rudimentary prototype; now we have to decide on materials and work out the many details relating to manufacturing. I won’t talk about the product just yet, but will talk about some of the learning experiences (and difficulties) as the project progresses.

The idea of building and launching a product in a short period of time is not new to the startup world. “Lean” development processes have been a mantra since the beginning of the Web and perhaps even earlier. It’s also possible to develop physical goods on a quick prototyping/iteration cycle. But, as I’ve found out in the last few weeks, there are a lot of of obstacles to getting a prototype built using the same materials that will eventually appear in the finished product.

Is it possible to simultaneously get two startups and a sideline consulting business off the ground and on a path to success? Probably.

Am I naive to think that we can get a product to market in six months? Maybe.

But I have a belief in myself, my partners, and our ideas. Further, I refuse to accept conventional assumptions about what’s possible until I have tried them myself.

Lastly, while validation of our ideas and building successful businesses are the ultimate goals, I acknowledge that I may fail … but through failure I will learn and iterate for success the next time around.