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Ask YC: Sex and founding a startup

10 points by technoguyrob ↗ HN
I'm thinking of founding a startup soon, and my hacker girlfriend would be an excellent addition to the coding team. In your experience, have you found you have any sex while founding a startup, and if so, do you wish you would have? As in, would it be more beneficial to spend that time coding, or relaxing with sex? For example, would once or twice a week be enough to relieve the stress in extreme scenarios? I ask because the general picture is that you spend 19 hours coding, a little eating, and the rest sleeping; but what if a female is in that picture?

24 comments

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ajkirwin
Well, all relaxation is good, to break up the working.

But.. it doesn't neccessarily HAVE to be sex. And indeed, a dependence and/or insistence on regular, almost scheduled sex, could add more stress, especially if an interpersonal relationship becomes a working relationship as well.

tlrobinson
Ask YC: Have you found that brushing your teeth is beneficial to a startup company?
bfioca
Only on Tuesdays and sometimes Thursdays.
paulgb
In the long run, it's cheaper just to outsource that kind of work.
powerflex
Just be thankful you have a girlfriend who's a) supportive of your startup mistress, b) can relate to your night-long bug hunts, and c) you can sleep with.

Sheesh, some people get all the breaks! ;)

mqt
If you're concerned with efficiency, it may be worth your time to hire a whore. That way, you can cut out all of that wasteful foreplay.
kingnothing
I'm going to go ahead and call this post a troll. It's a popular technique and is seen on nearly every niche forum at least once.
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alaskamiller
Then go and have sex. Starting a company doesn't make you celibate nor does it take away your free will. Why does this question even need to be asked?
dkokelley
Curious, when does a comment become deleted like this? Is it automatically deleted after a certain number of down-mods, do the HN admin gods remove it for whatever reason, or is it only removed when the poster manually deletes it after a comment has been made on it?

Replied to you since I can't reply to the deleted comment.

rms
Manually deleted by the poster within one hour after original post. If the admins got rid of it, it would still be there but it would be marked "dead" and would only show up if you enabled showdead in your profile.
rms
Oh, otherwise the comment would just disappear, but it shows as deleted when there are replies to it.
cheponis
Dump the girlfriend. You need to devote all of your attention to the startup. This will just be a distraction. If she loves you, she'll still be there after your startup is done.
[dead] jazj
I think the idea is that whatever you're coding is more interesting than fucking, yes?
dkokelley
I suggest not bringing her on as an employee or founder, but instead as just a consultant. She can come by and advise you with your code if you need it. You might even let her have a small piece of equity (non-controlling and certainly not more than any other founders).

Think of what will happen to your relationship if you have a fundamental disagreement with which direction your startup should go (and there will be a lot of course corrections along the way).

Worst case with a just-business co-founder: Your startup fails and you go your separate ways, sure that it's the other founder's fault that you didn't get the funding round.

Worst case with your girlfriend co-founder (or even simply employee): you disagree with her and piss her off somehow. She still works there so she goes behind your back and undoes what work you do, by sabotaging your efforts, and maybe even bringing other people in to your disagreement, and ultimately your relationship (not cheating, but forming factions against you within your startup). Now your startup ultimately fails as in case one, except in this case you've also lost your girlfriend.

Alternate worst case with your girlfriend co-founder: You have a fundamental disagreement with her, but because of the emotions involved in a relationship, she leaves the team entirely (and with no notice) taking her work with her (by acting maliciously or just simply leaving without letting other people know what she's done already, leaving them clueless as how to run what she was responsible for).

Either way, the downside is larger when your girlfriend is involved. Too many emotions involved in relationships to add to the stress of a startup. Don't do it.

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