A Deep Dive into the Intersection of Parenting and Entrepreneurship

CTOs have more ‘kid time’ than CEOs, and most founders make sure to attend their kids’ events. Women founders are more prone to feel guilt around work-kid balance, yet they also tend to prioritize work commitments more than their male counterparts. This and much more… ????

Founders sometimes talk about their startup as if it were a child they are raising, which is not surprising given the intensity involved. We also know that for many, this intensity is a cause for worry when thinking about raising actual children — will they have time? Will they be able to balance the two? How do others do it?

We surveyed 98 founder parents — men and women, CEOs and non CEOs, early and later stages — to try and get a nuanced understanding of the intersection of parenting and entrepreneurship. It’s worth keeping in mind that this survey was done with the war in Israel as a backdrop.

Key takeaways:

• Men and women have surprisingly similar responses related to the importance of attending kid-related events, the change in time spent with their kids since becoming founders, and the impact of their parent-founder position on their relationship with their kids.
• However, there are definitely differences by gender. Women are more likely to report feeling guilt about their dual role and pick up from school/gan significantly more often. Men are more likely to try and avoid late nights and business travel and to worry about time management with their children (perhaps a different version of guilt…)
• Perhaps the clearest message from the survey is that CTOs have a more balanced life (or perception of life) than CEOs. If you can swing it, CTO is the way to go…
• Entrepreneurship is a journey, and most respondents report an improvement in their ability to juggle startup and family life over time.

The vast majority of founders are part of the pickup schedule for their kids, though the frequency varies quite a bit.

When analyzed by gender, women are more likely to pick their kids up at least twice a week (60% of female founders vs. 45% of male founders), and there is an even bigger difference when looking at those who pick up from school three times a week: 39% of female founders vs. 9% of male founders. And men are more likely than women not to pick up their kids at all (23% of men vs. 14% of women), though many of them have older children, which might explain the finding.

When analyzed by role, CTOs are more likely than CEOs to pick their children up at least twice a week (57% vs. 45%) For other founders, 53% pick their kids up at least twice a week.

Founder parents are more likely to report a decrease in time spent with their kids since becoming a founder (68%) vs. an increase in time spent (13%). Twenty percent report that their time with their kids didn’t change since becoming a founder.

Male and female founders experience a similar decrease in time spent with their kids. However, when analyzed by role, CTOs are more likely to say that their time with kids stayed the same or increased (43% vs. 19% for CEOs). In other founder roles, 24% said that time with their children grew or didn’t change.

Business trips and late nights are an inevitable part of founder life. Interestingly, women are more likely to prioritize work commitments than their male counterparts (25% of women vs. 4% of men). This might be due to the need many women have to prove their commitment to being a founder. Founders at Series A and beyond are more likely to avoid business trips and late-night meetings compared to founders at the seed and pre-seed stages (19% vs. 29%).

It was great to see that the vast majority of respondents, both male and female, don’t miss their kids’ events (64%), and another 30% go to around half. Again, there was a difference by role, as 51% of CEOs go to almost every event compared with 71% of CTOs.

Respondents experience a range of challenges in balancing their founder and parent roles.

Women are most likely to cite guilt (61%) as their key challenge since becoming a founder-parent, with time management in second place (43%). For men, the greatest challenge is time management (63%) and tensions with partners is in second place with 41% (compared to women who cite this factor 29% of the time).

Interestingly ,when analyzed by role CEOs are more likely to cite guilt as a challenge (43%) vs. CTOs, where only 29% cited guilt as a challenge.

For those who cited financial pressure, most were in pre-seed or seed stage companies. This is noteworthy in an industry that is usually focused on exits and paydays — entrepreneurship often includes financial pressures, especially in the early stages of the journey.

There is broad agreement that the founder role is more demanding than other executive roles. This holds largely true across roles (CEO vs. CTO) and when analyzed by gender.

The majority of respondents reported that the pressure of being a founder impacted their connection with their kids to some extent. The numbers were quite similar for men and women: around 4% of both genders report an extreme (negative) impact on their relationship with their children and around 30% of each group reported a relatively low impact.

Role was a more significant factor, as one third of CTOs reported very little impact of work pressure on their relationship with the kids and none reported that they experienced an extreme impact. In contrast, 25% of CEOs cited the highest level of impact.

It’s hard to unplug from work when we’re at home. Only 19% of respondents feel that they are able to mostly disconnect from work when they are with their kids. Most respondents — 76% — report that they are only able to disconnect a little or somewhat and 11% are not able to disconnect at all. This phenomenon probably goes beyond just founders….

Given the pressures of founder life, it is somewhat encouraging that only 29% of respondents report being unsatisfied with their work-life balance (rating of 1 and 2 on a five-point scale). Women were less satisfied, as 36% chose the lowest ratings compared to 26% of men.

CTOs are more satisfied with their work-life balance than CEOs, with 43% saying that they were very or extremely satisfied compared to 32% of CEOs.

Entrepreneurship is a journey, and most respondents have seen an improvement in their ability to juggle startup and family life, with 61% saying it has either somewhat or significantly improved. For 20% there has been no improvement and another 15% report that their ability to juggle has gotten worse since founding their startup. Men and women had similar rates of ‘significantly improved’ (16% of men vs. 18% of women). However, overall men reported a better ability to juggle, as 65% reported that their ability to juggle improved somewhat vs. only 29% of women.

Again, CTOs show a more positive trend, as none reported that their work-life balance juggle had gotten worse, compared to 18% of CEOs who felt that way.