You would like for my comment to disappear forever? I find it worrisome that your attitude exists on Hacker News. This is suppose to be a forum for frank, honest discussions about the life of entrepreneurs. I think my point is valid: the early phase of a startup is uniquely stressful. That should not be the part of your life that overlaps with having a child. We are talking about maybe 2 or 3 years of your life, or maybe 4 at a stretch. Why not have kids before that, or after that? Why have kids just then, during what you know will be the most stressful years of your whole life? I'd be curious to know what your reasoning is. Of course, if you can buy enough down votes to make my comment disappear forever, then you won't need to address the point that I raise.
"We are talking about maybe 2 or 3 years of your life, or maybe 4 at a stretch."
I'm on startup #4 in 8 years. Every entrepreneur that I know is as hopelessly addicted to startups as I am. (Granted, there may be self-selection at work.)
Remember: Groupon going from $0 - $3B in two years is the exception. For every Andrew Mason, there are 10,000 chumps like me who spend 10 or 15 or 20 years at a startup. And the very nature of a startup means that you don't know when the "uniquely stressful" period is going to be over.
So the advice to have kids before or after some special 2-year Goldilocks zone strikes me as very naive. Your average startup is far too messy for that kind of precision life planning.
Because your comment reeks of "startup romanticism", not startup practice.
The most successful "Startup Guys™" that I know aren't the ones that spend 23 hours at the office and an hour commuting. They're the same guys that appreciate you staying late, but understand the importance of a life outside of their project and encourage you to get out of the office.
It is unhealthy for you and it is unhealthy for your company.
What's the point of being the boss if you can't take advantage of being the boss? Having enough money to live on an island is worthless if you don't get to spend any time on the island.
"Because your comment reeks of "startup romanticism", not startup practice."
Surely you realize that I could make the same kind of assertion about what you have written? I could write: "You comment reeks of sentimental notions about family life, not the actual reality of family life."
If you want to argue that all people, everywhere, enjoy their families then you are simply in denial of reality.
If you want to deny the fact that some people are deeply bitter about the sacrifices they have made for their children, then you are simply running away from the truth.
As for the startup romanticism that you mention, I've been working with startups since 2002, which is long enough to have some idea about what habits work over the long term, and what habits do not work over the long term. From what I've seen, it is a bad idea to have a child during the first 2 or 3 years of a startup. You can have kids before then, or after then, but not right during the most intense phase of the startup.
