Y Combinator Entrepreneurs Keep Parenting Status Secret Due to Startup Culture Pressure

I didn't tell my Y Combinator batchmates I had a kid. I worried they'd think I wasn't hardcore enough.

Nicholas Charriere said the parents in his YC batch kept their kids "hush-hush." Nicholas Charriere Nicholas Charriere had a kid before entering Y Combinator. He kept his kid mostly a secret. "I don't want people thinking I'm not as hardcore," he said. Charriere said that talking about having a kid was "not the vibe." This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nicholas Charriere, the 36-year-old cofounder of Mocha, an AI app builder. He lives in the Bay Area. It's been edited for...