Why Building a Startup While Raising Kids Made Lauri Eurén a Better Founder

Lauri Eurén is not your typical startup founder. While many entrepreneurs delay family or see it as a trade-off with building a business, he embraces both. As founder and CEO of Operating, a SaaS platform purpose-built for consulting firms to scale with clarity and efficiency, and father of two boys under five, he believes entrepreneurship and parenthood strengthen each other.

In a startup culture that often glorifies relentless hustle, Eurén's path is different. "Life doesn't wait," he says. "There's never a right time to do anything, be it starting a business or a family. It's exhausting, but if you're a founder, you enjoy that. Better to share the ups and downs with the people you love."

Eurén attributes his success to the balance of family and work life. In the process, he's challenging the myths that entrepreneurs have to choose between building a company and building their life.

How Family Shapes Lauri Eurén's Vision

Raised by two parents who built and sold successful businesses, Eurén learned about the resilience and dedication necessary to be a founder early on. His father was a tech entrepreneur, while his mother owned a dental clinic, and they are his biggest inspiration when it comes to entrepreneurship.

That rich upbringing inspires him as he balances work and family today. For him, building a company is about solving problems, but also setting an example for his children. He wants his boys to understand that it's possible to take risks, lead with purpose, and still be fully present at home.

"It's important to me that they see it's okay to love your work but come home on time," he explains.

This generational mindset guides Eurén as he grows Operating. His parents' experience is a constant reminder that entrepreneurship doesn't have to take away from family life.

Done right, it can become a meaningful part of it.

The Operating System Behind Eurén's Vision

Operating tackles a common problem consulting firms face: managing staffing, forecasting, and margins without getting lost in spreadsheets and scattered communication. Eurén calls this "operational fog."

With Operating, consulting firms can bring all of this data into a single interface. He describes it as the operating system he wished he had while running his own consulting business. By uniting all operational data in one place, the platform helps consulting teams better align their resources and work more strategically.

Just as Eurén structures his life around clear priorities, Operating helps firms cut through the noise and focus on what matters most.

Chaos and Calendar Blocks

Running a transatlantic SaaS startup with two toddlers at home requires structure. For Eurén, that means calendars and boundaries: "As an entrepreneur, normal working hours are never enough. You either wake up before everyone else or work after everyone's asleep."

He manages to do both, but there is one non-negotiable block on his calendar. Every evening, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., is family time. If work bleeds into these hours, he makes up for it the next morning.

Scheduling his family time actually brings chaos through structure for Eurén. "There's no way to organize your life effectively in the mode I'm living right now," he explains. "One thing you have to get used to is living with chaos and embracing the fullness of life."

It's a daily practice. He accepts the chaos and builds his schedule around it, creating the space he needs to focus on what matters most in both his personal and work lives.

Time: A Scarce Asset and a Strategic Filter

Fatherhood changed how Eurén approaches his work. Limited hours required him to become ruthless about what deserves his attention, with anything that doesn't unceremoniously pushed to the side.

"I'm saying no to many meetings where I see no value," he says. "I simply have too few hours on the clock each day. If it's not sales, customer, product, or team-related, I'm most likely not going to take a meeting."

For Eurén, it's less about following productivity trends and more about necessity. Parenting little kids makes the things that matter most more obvious. That clarity, in turn, carries over into how he runs Operating: he's building something to last long-term, in part because he's thinking beyond himself.

"Business and family are both marathons," says Eurén. "Kids are only small once. I'm trying to spend time with my family now while building something that could secure their future."

Trust Isn't Scheduled. It's Built Over Years.

Trust is an essential part of Eurén's approach to work-life balance. He can only be successful if those around him buy in and trust that, despite his family commitments, he's there when it counts. That's why his founding team consists of longtime collaborators who know each other's strengths and rhythms.

"Everyone in the founding team knows the others are fully committed," he concludes. "They know that if I can't work some day, I'll make it up on the other."

Eurén's co-founders studied together, built a business unit together, and scaled teams together before they began working on Operating. They function well as a team, but also respect each other to the point where performative hustle or rigid check-ins become unnecessary.

This deep trust lets the team handle the unpredictable demands of startup life and parenting, without missing a beat.

Building a Business and a Family, Together

The principles that guide Eurén's parenting also shape how he leads Operating. Clear priorities, respecting boundaries, and long-term thinking are equally important in both parenthood and entrepreneurship, which is why his company reflects a straightforward approach to work, cutting through distractions to focus on what matters most.

Just as he guards time and energy for his family, Operating helps consulting firms manage complexity and stay on track. For Eurén, growing a startup and raising a family are intertwined efforts that support each other's success.