Anya Singh

the hardest part about being a male founder.. in my experience is finding a girlfriend / partner that understands the short term gains that we are forgoing and the long-term optimization game that we are playing. most women expect to have most dates paid for, their vacations covered and their partner to have the time and emotional bandwidth to support them. somebody they see as a reliable provider. this is completely understandable. but as founders, every dollar saved is additional runway for the company. we budget down to the cent because our life’s work depends on it. every 100-hour work week slightly increases the odds of success. at this stage of life, we’re both cash-poor and time-poor — betting everything on the hope that one day, it all works out. that one day, we’ll be sitting on generational wealth — the kind most men only dream about. even for women who understand that they might be investing in their man long-term , it’s hard not to compare. their friends are dating guys with high-paying tech jobs, who work from 10 to 3 and can afford to give them a luxury experience now, not later. optimizing for the short term is human nature — it’s hard to fight against. to all the girlfriends out there dating early-stage founders — you’re the real ones. and to all my fellow founders: may you find your person while you still have nothing. Because that’s the only time you’ll know she’s with you for who you are, not what you have.