I think the problem is not the paycut, so much as you suddenly work 80 hour weeks and never see your kids.

If it's your startup, choose a location to work that's close to home, and have the kids come over.

I fondly remember running around the overly large halls of various companies my dad worked for which were startup or startup adjacent.

This brings back fond memories of playing tag with my brothers through the cubicles where my dad worked when he had weekend work to do, complete with a vending machine room and some desks that had bowls of M&Ms. It was great fun!

Would love to hear more haha, sounds like your dad did a good job juggling it all if you look fondly back on it

Well, my three brothers and I ranged from ages 5 to 10, so that's a good starting point. Then figure it's a bunch of long narrow hallways, which were wide enough for kids to run in, but narrow enough that you feel fast running along the walls. Low-pile office park carpet turns out to be perfect for traction when running in your socks at that age. And then M&Ms and vending machine stuff is the perfect treat for kids who mostly ate homemade meals.

I'm sure the two most uncommon enablers of the good experience were 1, there being four kids in the family to play together and, 2, my dad not worrying that we were going to cause a bunch of problems when left to run around the office.

I'm doing this by starting an all remote start up. I can hear my son playing downstairs or outside, while I get to dedicate myself for a while. I'm actually able to make it to more of the important times, now that I'm not commuting, even though I work long hours.

Yeah, the when of long hours can be much more important than the long hours themselves, especially depending on kid ages.

This. My son is only 4 months old and between all the naps and feeding, it's maybe only a few hours of actual time actively spent doing things with him. But I do have the luxury of being home all day so I work during his downtime.

Or better yet recognize that it's 2022 and just work from home.

Work-from-home can work great until you have a group that is working together; but even then you may be able to arrange something (house with outbuilding, etc).

> work 80 hour weeks

Hasn't really been my experience. There can be the odd extra evenings or even weekends, but nothing drastic.

The big difference in hours is probably how effective those 40 hours a week need to be compared to a big company.