Startup founders face tough questions, but this one hits different. Mike Yan, Manychat’s CEO and co-founder, shared how fatherhood reshaped his leadership—deepening his patience, care, and perspective on achievement. Check out the full conversation on the Startup Dad YouTube channel.
Does becoming a Dad make you worse as a CEO and founder?? ? That’s one question I asked Mike Yan of Manychat in this week’s Startup Dad conversation. “I think it changes different people in different ways. But for me it's about growing a certain kind of patience and care. And a lot of times business is around setting ambitious goals and driving people towards achieving results. And I think that's very important, but I think overall, the question is, what type of achievement do you want to bring into the world?” In our conversation Mike talked about the paradox of the Unhappy Achiever – and wanting to avoid that at home with his son and at work with his team. He also discussed: ?? How he almost became a magician rather than a founder ?? Figuring out when to start a family as founder of a fast-growing, 250+ person company ?? Preparing yourself, your team and your board for paternity leave ?? Advice he’d give to founders who are considering starting a family ?? Navigating the disruption of changes in childcare ?? How sleep training changed his life ?? Mistakes he made trying to balance work and family; and what he learned from it Six big takeaways from our conversation: ?? Create buffer space in your schedule after becoming a parent After becoming a Dad, Mike started making fewer commitments and simplifying his schedule to have resources available when his child or partner needs them. ?? Treat family challenges as "winning together" opportunities Mike applies his company's value of "winning together" to family life. The inevitable problems that come up should be approached as shared challenges rather than from opposing camps. ?? Technology should be a creative tool, not just passive entertainment Mike reflected on his own relationship with technology growing up, distinguishing between using technology as a creative outlet versus mindless consumption. ?? Childcare transitions are inevitable and require flexibility Childcare arrangements can change unexpectedly and be incredibly stressful. They require parents to adapt and sometimes look for that silver lining: like the month Mike and his wife spent without a nanny, enjoying extra time with their son. ?? A strong executive team enables founder flexibility? Mike was fortunate to have built a reliable executive team that could run the company effectively during his absence. Without prioritizing this it would have been a lot harder to step away. ?? Well-considered timing matters for major life events? Mike and his wife waited nearly 10 years before starting a family. They made a deliberate decision to wait until the company was stable enough to allow them the necessary time and attention for parenthood. Listen to our conversation wherever you get your podcasts or watch on Youtube! YT: https://lnkd.in/gfE783mT