…and why I don’t take my own advice.
startup (st√§rt’≈≠p’) noun : a fledgling company relying primarily on investment funding in the earliest stages of development; a recently-founded business enterprise.
For all of you ladies who may or may not be flirting with the idea of dating a startup programmer, you should know exactly what you’re getting yourself into.
~Weekends should not be assumed to be open for dates. In fact, all plans that are scheduled to occur immediately after your date finishes working should be considered flexible, because when you carry the sole responsibility for the proper operation of your company’s web services and you have a problem on Friday night, it needs to be fixed five minutes ago. Monday through Friday nine to five is a joke.
~If your “stable” job requires you to work in a cubicle, you will probably be the target of a lot of criticism and/or sympathy from your significant other and the startup world he lives in.
~Be prepared to wonder if you are prettier than his iPhone and if so, why he stares at it more than at you.
~Learn to appreciate the whiteboard.
~Own a Mac or be willing to admit that you should.
~Understand what “the zone” is, and don’t be offended if it takes a little while to get his brain to stop thinking in code. This should effectively remove the glazed look from his face, which should not be taken personally as it cannot be controlled.
~You may begin to evaluate your level of importance in his life by how often you are mentioned in his Twitter updates.
~Don’t be shocked when he assumes that sustaining a successful relationship can be boiled down to a simple algorithm.
~You are expected to use (or at least try out and give your opinion of) the latest social media, tech gadgets, and all software or products that are made by or have any association with Google. What you are using now is probably obsolete and nearly laughable, which is a poor reflection on the tech-savvy man in your life.
~In a word…NETWORKING.
~If you want to understand your boyfriend, understand computers. It’s not that difficult.
~You will have to appreciate the time and effort it took to run a search engine optimization campaign on the website he made you for your birthday, and how important that is to him. He shows his affection differently than other guys do sometimes.
~Saturday afternoons might be spent sitting across from him in a coffee shop writing a blog post while he codes. Hence this blog post.
And being perfectly honest…it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. In fact, I would recommend it to anyone who is willing to try with the understanding that it’s not going to be normal. This business attracts passionate, independent, and creative people who find it easy to take that attitude into everything else in their lives. I owe a lot of my desire to change the world someday to a boy who has taught me that if you try, you have a 90% chance of failure – so try more than once because then your odds go up. When you have that much responsibility you can’t afford to be mediocre, and you won’t find anyone with more desire to be excellent in everything he does.
You have to be willing to take risks too and take advantage of the opportunity to develop who you are around something other than the attention of your significant other. You will probably be challenged a lot and forced to ask yourself some tough questions about how motivated YOU are. You both have to learn how to put the best interests of someone else over what you want. And even if it doesn’t work out, if you haven’t learned anything in the end rest assured that you passed up a fantastic opportunity.
So occasionally against my better judgment, I’m still a startup girlfriend. And I kind of like it :)
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