Anyone who's been involved in hyper-growth startups knows that having a hobby is extremely difficult. The least one can do is squeeze in gym time at hotels during business trips, but otherwise, time is definitely an issue.
For a decently established startup with well-secured funding, this article is spot-on.
Sometimes putting more work time in is less useful than than taking time to improve the quality of that work. 14 hours working at 75% capacity because you're tired, isolated, or missing social stimulation is worse than 10 hours at 100% of your capacity.
Many founders find missing their friends and hobbies makes them less productive, so, for some, it's far better for the startup to spend a little less time on it. It takes a very self-aware founder to actually do it though.
I was feeling exhausted recently, in desperate need of a vacation. I took an 18 hour trip to Chicago to visit a friend of mine and came back quite renewed.
In a perfect world I would probably only socialize once a week, with a good friend each time.
I really should make that a higher priority, even if some travel is required.
DHH not only open sourced Rails while he built 37 Signals / Basecamp he also won Le Mans racing trophies and wrote a couple books on entrepreneurship.
Sometimes there are situations where it truly is a matter of hyper growth and full bore competition, but I think there are plenty of opportunities to build a sub-billion dollar business and still have an interesting life outside of work.
DHH has been my idol for 10-15 years. His Tweets are legit too. I really should consider the Chicago scene, from Minneapolis originally but gosh do I not wanna deal with snow after a couple years on Ocean Beach/SF. The work culture here is disgusting and my productivity is hampered by management judo-ing me out of hobbies. I am sure I could do a quantative analysis based on historic data, not my forte tho, but I know it. My reputation here is messed from quitting and getting pushed from so many jobs. And I mention elsewhere here, my only hobby is 45min daily empty gym and hr lunch out. The money here gets to peoples’ heads, can also tell by popping bottles for trivial accomplishments.
Rails and the books were both byproducts of 37 Signals (ie stuff they were doing anyway, so they released it to the public - not that that is cost-free, but it's not as intensive as doing it from scratch). And cars are his hobby.
When you say "involved" do you include engineers too or just founders? Is it normal for some startups to make their engineers work so much that they cannot have any hobby other than gym?
You may think your hyper growth startup needs 100% of your time, but that pressure is all in your head. Whether you work yourself to the point of exhaustion, or you take it at a reasonable pace, your chance of succeeding is still the same (extremely low.)
For a decently established startup with well-secured funding, this article is spot-on.