

The Hidden Co-Founder - remyt
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/05/the-hidden-co-founder/

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rifung
It's fascinating that some founders will always post things like this, "I
don’t think true work/life balance is possible in the day-to-day reality of
startups" and yet others say that there's really no need to sacrifice work
life balance even at a start up, and that if you are working yourself to
death, you aren't working smart.

I suppose there's not necessarily a right answer.

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onion2k
People who say it isn't possible to maintain a work/life balance in a startup
are usually those who find it hard to delegate - they don't have people around
them that they trust to do as good a job of something as they do themselves so
they refuse to hand responsibility to other people or accept that they aren't
the best person for the job.

In a small startup that's fine because there aren't that many things to do. A
founder _can_ be the developer, support, strategist, and marketer all at once.
Arguably it's even a good thing at that stage because it keeps the burn rate
down. The problems arise when there's too much growth for the jobs to be all
be done, or even just overseen, by a founder. Then they struggle and start to
hold the business back.

A good founder is always be looking for people who are _better_ than they are
to hand things over to. That's how a business succeeds.

~~~
louischatriot
Absolutely. It's crucial for a founder to be able to take a step back and
think strategically. Being always under water and completing task after task
prevents you from seeing the big picture and taking the big decisions.

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davidw
If you're interested in this kind of thing, Sherry and Rob Walling have been
doing a nice podcast here: [http://zenfounder.com/](http://zenfounder.com/)

Highly recommended, although I hope that sooner or later they'll add a
transcript.

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thomasatethose
isn't this just a different way of saying success is who you know, not what
you know?

also what do you do if you don't have any of those support systems or
connection networks?

