I don’t think the broken relationship problem is just a feature of startups. I suspect long, relationship unfriendly hours are true across the business community; whether the businesses are tech startups, plumbers, or a doughnut franchise.

Startups don’t leave much room for work life balance & that people really need to weigh this up before they decide to undertake the startup journey.

I question whether it really needs to be that way.

This “startup culture” seems to be about a very specific kind of new business, one which is about high-risk extreme growth before making extreme profits from a float on the share market. About becoming the next batch of billionaires by creating the Next Big Thing.

While there’s nothing wrong with that goal in and of itself, it does assume a certain definition of success — and about which other aspects of being human it’s OK to trash along the way.

That you referred to startup “junkies” is revealing, Kate, because pursuing a dream to the neglect of others does mirror the behaviour of an addict.

Now I reckon it’s also possible to build solid long-lasting businesses and still become rich without grinding yourself and everyone around you into the ground at the same time. The folks at 37signals have done just that while maintaining healthy lives and relationships — and, indeed, moving to a 4-day work week. Yet some in the startup culture have derided them for creating a “lifestyle business”, as if it’s some sort of unprofitable weekend hobby. As if anyone not pursuing this relentless growth at malignant-cancer speeds is somehow lazy.

I have of course written about this before, comparing startup culture to an evil cult — an essay which proved one of my most popular from 2008 and much of which I still agree with.