I did this for 27 months, from 2019 – 2021! I'm in my 30s & no kids (dedicated my life to the startup – which is table stakes these days). I'm in the USA and a

I did this for 27 months, from 2019 – 2021! I'm in my 30s & no kids (dedicated my life to the startup – which is table stakes these days). I'm in the USA and a key was to work with UK/Euro engineers for the startup, which let me arbitrage both COL and especially timezone. COL wise I fit two uk/euro eng salaries + my own humble costs into my USA eng salary. Timezone wise I got on zoom to Europe from 7am-9am ET Weds-Fri and 7am-12pm on weekends. Which left me weekend afternoons for my own startup deliverables – we had a long term paid pilot which my team supported but I had to personally deliver to ensure success. Living wise, for the six months leading Covid I had to be in the work office in Baltimore, which was 2 hours away from my home near Philadelphia, so I had a second apartment 10 mins from work/gym where I lived Monday – Thursday. This made it really easy to focus as there was nothing to do but work, exercise, eat, read and do email, talk to fiancee, go to bed, zoom at 7am. If anything, WFH starting in 2020 made it harder to focus. I also don't drink. Relationship wise, the startup existed before my relationship and deeply influenced mate selection/compatibility. Job wise I was an eng manager / product manager for an early stage cloud product which I shepherded from concept to post-revenue and early sales, it was not a soft FAANG job, it was intense but I was able to get everything done in 40 hours a week, near flawless delivery, never dropped a ball. Yes I am uniquely skilled/driven but most founders are, that's why you're doing it right? Burnout was not really an issue for me, probably because of deep belief and conviction in the startup and willingness to do "whatever it takes" to succeed. (We are succeeding, btw!). Mental health wise, through Covid we all gained weight and I had some depression due to the relentless beating of corporate life. Hired a psychologist to help me process those frustrations and also work through my everyday failings as an entrepreneur (also normal). Eventually the startup made enough progress to raise some money and transition out of the job, but I think I could have sustained it indefinitely if that's what it took.