Only my company He had the best quarter ever. As founder and CEO, I’m proud to say I wasn’t there for most of it.
I had a good excuse, though: I was on parental leave to raise my first child. Since I started this company, I haven’t taken more than a week off; That includes marrying my very patient husband. When I tried to set up a sales pitch the day of our civil ceremony at San Francisco City Hall, he rolled his eyes.
Needless to say, I was worried about passing the time. Baking that little muffin was no easy task and I wasn’t sure how I would react when she was down to earth. But I wanted a proper break and opportunity to get to know her and myself in this new role.
I met several of my investors by asking them to connect me to CEOs who took parental leave and introduced me to several male CEOs, and they casually told me they only took a week or two.
I finally got a lead on the CEO which took some time, but to no one’s surprise, she was too busy to talk to me. fair enough! However, I have received good advice about taking vacations while running a company. Here are a few things I learned:
We were new to this stage of planning, but this was a great opportunity to refine our process and give everyone a sense of purpose and direction in my absence.
Tell people that you are taking more time off than you think
You want to tell people that you’ll be emailing and calling during nursing hours from your hospital room. “You really can’t get out,” many people told me.
My smart friend and investor Jules Miller from Mindset Ventures says, “Tell everyone you’re going to take 12 weeks, and if they want to come back early, great. But you never know what this experience will throw at you.
She was right. When my son was 28 days old, our house was flooded. We had to pack everything and move three times in three weeks. I never fully recovered and threw my back out of motion and couldn’t even hold my baby. I was grateful to Jules for her wise counsel and flexibility to truly explore and connect with my life.
