Must founders work 24x7 to grow their startups?

There are stats about success vs age of founders and such
older founder might have twice as much chance of having success than younger ones..

out of the high growth startups only 10% are <=29yo
"The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45"
https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-successful-startup-founder-is-45#:~:text=Among the top 0.1% of,they were 45 years old.&text=In other words%2C when you,age goes up%2C not down.

The reality shown in the data is very different from the image sold in the pop culture

Successful founders will say this is the way not to be successful.

Yes, you should work hard and long. No, you shouldn't sacrifice sleep and downtime in order to work 20 hours.

You think you're working 20 hours, but you're certainly less productive than you would be if you only worked 12 hours, took mental breaks, and slept well.

Most successful full-time founders I've seen work 5-6 days per week, and no more than 10-14 hours per day.

I've dealt with the same anxiety. I've torched $50k of runway "working" 100+ hour weeks. Always remember, most successful businesses take 18+++ months to get noticeable traction — no one, and I repeat, no one can sustain 18x7 and not burnout or fail.

Work smart.

Love this post!
I am on my second round as a founder-CEO.

First startup we took 5 years to go from nothing to global group and IPO on London Stock exchange.

This one, we are going even faster with ... half less pain.

On the first one, we did comply with the "pop culture" (Just saw this in the comments and loved it). Only to realise down the track that although the startup was a success, the truth is a big part of our crazy working hours was due to a combination of our own inexperience + inefficiency + comply with what we thought was absolutely required (i.e. die working or fail).

Second time around, strong of our experience, we are working smarter (this is where a healthy dose of experience comes handy), far more efficiently (and as a result far less working hours) and we feel no shame whatsoever about it (imposteur syndrome gone).

I am in my mid-30s. I was 27 when I started my first startup. If I had known what I know now, I would have enjoyed life more, slept more and rested more - because in the end, your well-being as a founder is not only important for you, but also for your business.

In the end, the only thing that matters is: how excellent/exceptional your product is and how well you market it so that your business grows like crazy. The number of hours you put behind accomplishing this is irrelevant, and you will never get any reward/appraisal for killing yourself doing it.

Do it smart ;)

Don't forget to only eat Soylent or Huel!
All hail uncapped efficiency!
#neverrest because pain is weakness leaving the body!!1

(but also ... if you have customers that you bring value to they give you the license to keep enjoying building your thing at the pace that seems to be working for you)

The "grind" and "hustle" have become a meme, but there's still truth in there. The stories of all the top earning Indiehackers no doubt involved long periods hunched in front of a glowing screen pushing out code.

There's no other way. The work has to be done.

However the marginal benefit of an extra hour of work means a lot more to a solo-founder that hasn't found product-market fit than it does to a team growing at 100% per month. Sounds like you've found a winning formula so why not stick to it.

Days off to reflect and recharge are part of the game too.

I am sure there's all sorts of quotes like "work hard, work smart", etc.

But yeah, I recall back in 1999 on my first startup at the age of 31 feeling old when walking around networking events. But honestly, I felt that having already done 10 years in industry gave me and my cofounders (some were in 40's) a huge advantage and it showed in our success.

Now 20 years on and still cranking out ideas, I definitely feel like I've slowed, but I also know the quality and depth/breadth of thinking that goes in to something is a lot more than someone half my age.

So "raw hours" isn't the right measurement, it's "quality hours" that matters.

It doesn't have to be crazy at work. When you need a rest, rest!

Startup is a long game, work smart =/= work hard.

I asked on cofounderslab for people to say how many hrs they worked each week and their age. Only 10 replies so far but all the over 40/50's are averaging around 60 hrs and talking about quality, etc, etc.

But one person in his 30's said 110 hrs per week! Go figure!? Apart from possibly not believing him, I'd love to observe and see the quality of output. And if he has any friends.

Most people who claim to work 24/7 probably work 4hrs at best a day. Working for a long time is difficult for knowledge workers. Manual labor can work longer, but knowledge work especially that of putting new ideas to play is tough and requires plenty of rest.

of course. i'm on the later side of 30's... i'll be 39 this year.

... part of "winning" at startups and running your own co. is not giving af about what others are doing.

... this is hard when you're young b/c you haven't lived long enough to know what you like or don't like... it's like my 20's was a decade of "trying out shit" and "collecting experiences" and my 30's have been "okay, i know what i like now."... ish.

lol.

i don't deal with anxiety as nearly as much as i used to... i get all stressed over how my team and community is doing. that'll never stop.

I'm in your situation. I'm in my mid 30s, have a family with 2 young kids, a mortgage, and I am a solopreneur who constantly asks the same question. And I still struggle with it, however two things helped me to ease the mental pain a bit...

You have to work smarter, not harder. And if you learn from your mistakes, then over the time you will get smarter. Young people with lots of free time and no family or other obligations compensate with grit. Doesn't mean you have to slack most of the time, but you can achieve the same amount in less time. If you're right 70% of the time compared to 65% of the time for young hustlers, in the long run you will win.

Also keep in mind that startups is Olympics. Winner takes all which is why investors rush to find the next Facebook, TransferWise, Uber, etc. And while people here certainly want to win (big?), my impression is that the majority are happy settling with a much smaller, usually niche, market that allows them to build a lifestyle business instead of earning billions. Over time I found out that I actually value time to myself, time spent with family, and would rather have my own business with average salary that work 15-20 hours a day and eventually earn hundreds of millions.

We grew to 100k+ users in two years, all organic. Kept the balance of work and life. Sprint, rest then sprint. Figure out what works best for you, everyone's journey is different. Don't listen to thought leaders :D

I think it depends how fast you want to grow your company, and your priorities.

You don't have to work all day long to be successful though. Growing too fast has its drawbacks too.

I'd rather grow steadily and be able to maintain the level of service required for customers to be happy. Of course it's just me. You might have totally different priorities.

My point is: there are more than 1 way to become successful.

Nobody works 24x7 because that is not humanly possible. Trying to work every waking hour is good way to burn out and drive your startup to the ground. You cannot reach the end of a marathon at sprint velocities, no matter what Gary Vaynerchuks of the world might say.