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Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

What a load of shit. So the argument basically reduces to:

"You can't be a startup founder and date, therefore it's better to do a startup if you're already in a long-term committed relationship."

Ummm... how about "I'm single and I'm willing to forgo dating for 'x period of time' until my startup is established and running" OR, even better, "I'm single and I'm willing to forgo dating for now, until my startup exits, I'm rich, and I can live the billionaire playboy lifestyle and take my dates on exotic trips to fun places, etc., etc. yada yada."

Doing a startup means making sacrifices whether you're single or not, this article contributes nothing to value to the discussion of who should and shouldn't be running a startup, IMO. Then again, my take on this discussion is that there really isn't anything to discuss to begin with: You should run a startup... drumroll If you want to run a startup.

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Even better: "I'm single and I'm willing to pursue meaningless one-night stands and shallow two-week flings until my startup is established and running." This has the benefit of keeping you physically satisfied while being 100% emotionally connected to your startup.

* This only applies to the nontechnical founders.

Not true. Technical people can do it too. Its a learned skill like everything else

Its also a very time-consuming skill to master at 11am+ at which point you have enough brain power to drool over an ugly girl at best.

It's equally important to realize that just because one is married and has a family that that also doesn't preclude one from founding a startup.

The point here is that there is a lot of people out there that believe that married people can't or don't have the time needed to dedicate to a startup. Founders with families have the added benefit of having a strong support system that single founders may lack.

There are pros and cons to both situations but no one should ever suggest that anyone should or shouldn't do a startup simply based on generic previous life experiences or decisions.

It seems to me the most important attribute of a founder is dedication, not marital status.

Not marital status, but the marital partner. If your spouse is supportive, then it's a better environment than being single. If they're not... Well, let's just say that I'm divorced...

Hint: sometimes sarcasm doesn't come with a smiley.

No, and that's why sarcasm on the internet is usually a bad idea. Subtlety doesn't come across very well in text.

That said, nothing about this article suggests to me that it was intended to be sarcastic. It reads pretty serious to me. But that's just me... :-)

It's Canadian sarcasm... the best kind.

total sarcasm

Furthermore, I take offense at the core premise: "You can't be a startup founder and date"

I'm about a year into this startup, I've probably been on 40+ "dates".

If you have to work so hard that you can't find one night per weekend or one weekday afternoon to get out of the office and spend time with someone, maybe you're not smart enough to build a smart up...

Well... for what it's worth, I wouldn't say that you can't date while doing a startup. But in my own case, I have actually all but sworn off dating while doing what I'm doing. Honestly, right now building this business and chasing certain dreams that I have, is more important to me than romantic / sexual relationships. I've been one one "proper" date this year, as best as I can recall. <shrug />

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