A lot of comments seem to be making a horrible comparison between "relentlessly focusing on building a great product and growing" and working long hours. There is no rule that says you must spend 120 waking hours in the office to be relentlessly focused on building a great product and growing the business. In fact, if anything sama is pointing out that people are wasting time with work that does not focus on building a great product or growing.
A member of a YC batch seems to have only a few obligations. There was occasional office hours which help to keep the batch on track with objectives to reach product or growth excellence. They have social events, which are good for learning and more general. They have a few demo type activities which are, again, around product and grown excellence. The rest of the time they work on... product and growth excellence. Do they have to work on things more than 40 hours a week? No. Is there a time clock where they share their hours? No.
Granted they are often out of their normal environment and very excited so they do work more than 40 hours. But that is a choice not a requirement. There are many examples of founders who bring spouses and children and find time during their batch for having great family experiences and good work/life balance.
The issue seems to be when they get home. They no longer spend 40 hours working on growth and product excellence. They work on marketing themselves. They work on raising more money. They work on PR. They lose the product and grown momentum.
We need to stop turning this into a conversation about how "start up founders must give up work/life balance to succeed". No one is suggesting that. What is being suggested is that you take what you learn in a 3 month period and use it after that three month period. Don't work longer, work smarter.
Edit: If the down voters would care to discuss why they object to this opinion, do feel free.
A member of a YC batch seems to have only a few obligations. There was occasional office hours which help to keep the batch on track with objectives to reach product or growth excellence. They have social events, which are good for learning and more general. They have a few demo type activities which are, again, around product and grown excellence. The rest of the time they work on... product and growth excellence. Do they have to work on things more than 40 hours a week? No. Is there a time clock where they share their hours? No.
Granted they are often out of their normal environment and very excited so they do work more than 40 hours. But that is a choice not a requirement. There are many examples of founders who bring spouses and children and find time during their batch for having great family experiences and good work/life balance.
The issue seems to be when they get home. They no longer spend 40 hours working on growth and product excellence. They work on marketing themselves. They work on raising more money. They work on PR. They lose the product and grown momentum.
We need to stop turning this into a conversation about how "start up founders must give up work/life balance to succeed". No one is suggesting that. What is being suggested is that you take what you learn in a 3 month period and use it after that three month period. Don't work longer, work smarter.
Edit: If the down voters would care to discuss why they object to this opinion, do feel free.