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I've posted this before but it seems relevant here to highlight the prejudice that people with families will sometimes face. Ripped directly from a rejection l

I've posted this before but it seems relevant here to highlight the prejudice that people with families will sometimes face. Ripped directly from a rejection letter I received: "I think instead of making a more detailed offer, I should consider certain facts. For starters, you have a family and that'll be the driving force behind all your decisions. Secondly, you will not be able to be here in the program with me. Ideally, I want someone who could be here though not necessary. More importantly, it's the family situation I consider. I've worked developers before with family and the company died largely because of that. I don't want to say that'll happen but I worry. This other candidate is like me. No responsibilities except {COMPANY NAME}. That makes life less complicated. Based on this - nothing to do with skills - it's best that him and I work together. " The program was one of the startup accelerators (not YC). He was right that my family would have been the driving force behind all my decisions. He was wrong in thinking that's a bad thing. I can't imagine a bigger motivator than my family. When you have kids, failure just isn't an option.

analog31 13y ago
>>> This other candidate is like me. 'Nuff said. >>> No responsibilities except {COMPANY NAME}. That makes life less complicated. Based on this - nothing to do with skills - it's best that him and I work together. Skills include management skills such as working with people who are not all alike. You dodged a bullet.
robrenaud 13y ago
> When you have kids, failure just isn't an option. Then it seems that startups are a pretty bad choice for parents, given their inherent riskiness?
- kjs3 13y ago
  Only if you assume you're going to fail. No entrepreneur goes into it thinking it's not going to work out. The difference is that a parent doesn't say "things look rough...fuck it, I'll sleep on a friends couch for a couple of weeks, go to some networking events and start something different". We're in for the long haul.
bbwharris 13y ago
"The company died largely because of that." What a crock of shit. Most companies fail, and you can blame the guy with a family as the main source of failure? I wonder what he will blame the next failure on.

analog31 13y ago

>>> This other candidate is like me. 'Nuff said. >>> No responsibilities except {COMPANY NAME}. That makes life less complicated. Based on this - nothing to do with skills - it's best that him and I work together. Skills include management skills such as working with people who are not all alike. You dodged a bullet.

robrenaud 13y ago

> When you have kids, failure just isn't an option. Then it seems that startups are a pretty bad choice for parents, given their inherent riskiness?

kjs3 13y ago
Only if you assume you're going to fail. No entrepreneur goes into it thinking it's not going to work out. The difference is that a parent doesn't say "things look rough...fuck it, I'll sleep on a friends couch for a couple of weeks, go to some networking events and start something different". We're in for the long haul.

bbwharris 13y ago

"The company died largely because of that." What a crock of shit. Most companies fail, and you can blame the guy with a family as the main source of failure? I wonder what he will blame the next failure on.