Does becoming a parent change how investors approach investing and partnering with founders?

Ophelia Brown · Mar 17, 2023

Parenthood didn't make her more efficient so much as it made explicit that all time is a choice, forcing deliberate selection of which teams to spend time with

She was already operating efficiently, so the gain came from choosing where to say yes or no and where she can actually add value, not from squeezing more out of the day

Scope: personal experience; framed around hitting a target number of investments per year

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Sarah Tavel · May 6, 2024

Becoming a parent changes nothing about how she thinks about investing or partners with founders; it only raises the marginal opportunity cost of her time

She gets energy from founder meetings and would happily do ten hours a day of them, but with kids every hour now carries a real opportunity cost

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Nico Wittenborn · May 22, 2023

Having children makes you think more long term, including about outcomes beyond your own lifespan, which shapes where he chooses to invest

You want the world to look good for your kids, and he asks whether he'd feel good telling his daughter about a company

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Nico Wittenborn · May 22, 2023

Having children is a forcing function that pushes investors toward long-term thinking and a broader sense of responsibility beyond themselves

Solo GPs and VCs are naturally ego-driven and self-focused; kids teach you that you're part of a whole — family, friends, portfolio companies, their employees and customers — and that carries responsibility

Scope: framed as his personal experience

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Nikhil Basu Trivedi · Sep 6, 2023

Fatherhood changed his investing: he now has to believe in his bones that a company is worth his time, not just evaluate the capital and economics

His time matters more than ever and time is a precious commodity

46:59 Parenthood shifts evaluation toward personal conviction over pure economics since time is scarcer