I didn't tell my Y Combinator batchmates I had a kid. I worried they'd think I wasn't hardcore enough.
A tech founder shares his experience of hiding his status as a father while participating in the Y Combinator startup accelerator. He felt that being a parent conflicted with the 'hardcore' culture expected of early-stage entrepreneurs.
Why it matters
The story sheds light on the intense, often exclusionary cultural pressures within the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem regarding work-life balance.
Nicholas Charriere said the parents in his YC batch kept their kids "hush-hush." Nicholas Charriere Nicholas Charriere had a kid before entering Y Combinator. He kept his kid mostly a secret. "I don't want people thinking I'm not as hardcore," he said. Charriere said that talking about having a kid was "not the vibe." This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nicholas Charriere, the 36-year-old cofounder of Mocha, an AI app builder. He lives in the Bay Area. It's been edited for length and clarity. I grew up in France. I studied math and physics. Then I discovered Hacker News , and I started learning all about entrepreneurship. I decided: I want to be in technology, and I want to be a founder. I moved to San Francisco after my studies with that goal. It took six years to sort out visa issues.
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