>There are plenty of startup entrepreneurs who don't have that singular focus or obsession and can still create a successful company.
Who would that be that HN is familiar with? HN is familiar with startup founders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, M Zuckerberg, etc. Their ability to outwork everyone else with 80+ hours/week is well-known and constantly repeated in business reporting.
Who are the 40-hour a week startup founders that HN can use as role models? If there are "plenty", I don't know a single one. (The original HN question asker apparently doesn't know them either because he wouldn't ask the question if he did.)
I would hope HN posters don't speak abstractly. Instead, speak concretely and tell us who those real people are so we can emulate them.
It seems you define successful startup as companies who IPOed, became household brands and made their founders billionaires. A company can already be seen as success if it makes good profit and keeps the stakeholders happy. The founders of those might not be role model material you're looking for. Personally I already exclaim success when I hear a solo founder is sitting on the beach while making profit.
I can't name a startup founder of a now NASDAQ company that didn't work 80hr/week (although Bezos prides himself at sleeping 8h day who knows what he did in the early days), but here's a founder who rather works 4 days a week than 5 https://signalvnoise.com/posts/902-fire-the-workaholics possibly because there weren't VCs answering to.
>It seems you define successful startup as companies who IPOed, became household brands
No, I'm not the one fixated on famous IPO'd companies. I'm interpreting the question the HN poster asked and making an assumption of what the questioner had in his mind for "successful startup" to motivate why he would ask it.
Sure, it's possible for a "successful startup" to mean a sole-proprietor who wrote a niche vertical software that he hardly spends time in. He's just living off of maintenance renewals from enterprise customers. However, if the OP thought of this as a "successful startup", it wouldn't have motivated the question to be asked.
I may be wrong but I look at what motivated phrases like "successful startup" and "give up your life". Well, he's on HN. It seemed my interpretation was very reasonable.
> but here's a founder who rather works 4 days a week than 5
I don't think DHH is a "founder" in the sense that many HN readers are thinking. He was the key guy for Basecamp code and was hired by founders. I believe he was later given "partner" status at 37signals. He's definitely has high net worth like a "founder" so maybe that's the confusing part.
>(I didn't downvote your post BTW if that was a concern)
I don't mind the negative imaginary points but I do like some dialogue and discussion. I appreciate your and everyone else's response.
Let's agree OP's question left too much room for interpretation. The spectrum of solo entrepreneur to typical HN team to older medium size companies (some which call themselves startup but probably shouldn't) is too large. OP should have added a couple of sentences to clarify.
I've worked crazy hours for multiple startups, it paid off, and will do again. I don't want to give the image though it's the best way. Lots of friends (startup employee) burnt out over the years and their extra hours made no difference because the business success was determine by something outside their control.
> burnt out over the years and their extra hours made no difference because the business success was determine by something outside their control.
If you're answering in this way, maybe other posters also interpret my post as "advice" or "prescription" that you must work 80 hours a week to be successful.
That's not what my downvoted post was about. Instead, it was an observation of founder psychology that the questioner may not be aware of. I'm saying that there's a species of entrepreneur where there is no dichotomy of "work" vs "life". Their work is life. If the founder has that mentality, there is no "life to give up" and therefore, the OP's question is nonsensical to them. That type of crazy passion is in the peer group of entrepreneurs. That's the competition.
This has less to do with hours worked and more to do with personality. I don't work more hours than everyone else because I want to tick some box, or that it's needed. I work harder and longer, because I have a vision and a passion. I'm stubborn, so I keep going because I know it can be done. So I take ownership of the key components, and I'll review everything else; everything. It's not needed at all. It's correlative, not causative.
Who would that be that HN is familiar with? HN is familiar with startup founders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, M Zuckerberg, etc. Their ability to outwork everyone else with 80+ hours/week is well-known and constantly repeated in business reporting.
Who are the 40-hour a week startup founders that HN can use as role models? If there are "plenty", I don't know a single one. (The original HN question asker apparently doesn't know them either because he wouldn't ask the question if he did.)
I would hope HN posters don't speak abstractly. Instead, speak concretely and tell us who those real people are so we can emulate them.