4 tips for juggling fatherhood and your startup

On June 12, I had the amazing and joyful experience of welcoming a baby girl to the world. Euphoria set in, and I was instantly in love. My first day back in the office, I found myself consumed with wanting to get home to hang with her.

With Father’s Day around the corner, it got me thinking about how startup founders manage to juggle the grind of starting a company with the expectations of fatherhood.

In my role running Acceleprise, I have the good fortune of working with early-stage software as a service (SaaS) startup founders, some of whom are also fathers. I spoke to four of them recently, and they shared some great insights.

• Be present. It’s easy for your mind to wander to work, especially as chief executive of a startup but it’s so important to be present with your children. If you are playing with them or helping them with their homework, don’t check your work emails and stay focused on what you are doing. Anish Parikh from Whistler Technologies says, “Designated activities can sometimes be better than open-ended ‘time’ with kids for chief executive-types because then you know there’s a beginning and an end and you can try to keep focused on your kids during that time.”
• Create a shared family calendar. Elio Narcisco from Measurence says, “Merge your kid’s schedule with your own, so you can show up as much as possible.” Time management is critical and actually blocking time off for your kids and sticking to it can help force you to be more efficient.
• “Bring the victories home. Leave the defeats at the office.” That’s what Brian Bissonette from WorkingGroupLink says. Share the good news about your startup with your family but rather than share your defeats, ask your children questions and understand their challenges, so you can help them if they need it. If you talk about work too much at home it can suddenly start to creep into every conversation and can often lead to you talking too much and not listening enough to your children.
• Make time for your health. Time is at a premium, which can often mean shortcuts in your diet, sleep and exercise; and long term can impact your health. It’s a lot to juggle and being healthy can make you more productive at work and more present with your family. Ryan Mindigo from Pick says, “Don’t mess with your own sleep and keep your phone out of your bedroom.”

Being a startup founder and a father can be incredibly rewarding, but can be difficult to manage. Take today to be thoughtful about how you juggle the two and enjoy the time with your children. Happy Father’s Day!

Michael Cardamone is managing director of software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup accelerator Acceleprise San Francisco.