I quit google, got married, we got pregnant, bought a house in San Francisco, and started a business all in about a year (late '98-99).<p>My wife is on my board, technically she can be part of the set of people who can fire me.<p>I don't know if marriage is the right thing for everyone, it's worked well for me though. I think a huge part of it is who you marry, I got lucky with a very supportive and understanding wife. We took huge risks, didn't really have a business model (I was trying to help out Linus), she supported me throughout.<p>I think that support is key for any founder or early stage employee. I had a policy, still do though it is less important these days, of getting the blessing of the spouse before making an offer to any hire. Seems obvious to me but a lot of people skip that step.<p>On kids & startups:<p>When the first kid came along, my wife did 100% of the work, or very close to it. We worked out a warning system, our house was upside down, the living room (where I worked) was upstairs; if I was on a sales call and she came in, I'd stomp on the floor - for some reason a crying baby doesn't aid in sales :)<p>So for one kid, no real hit on productivity if you have a really cool wife.<p>When the second kid came along, I had to help, one person can't raise two young kids without some help (or if they can, wow, my hat is off.)<p>Kids do change the equation a bit, things get harder, they also get better. I personally like hiring people with kids because kids teach parents tolerance. Before I had kids if someone just hung up on me I'd think that was really rude. After kids, I shrug and assume that something more important (like a bloody nose or whatever) came up and I don't get mad.<p>That works both ways, if I have to deal with an urgent issue and I abruptly get off the phone with one of my people, they don't get mad either.<p>One other big kid related change, though age plays into it as well, is when I work. I do my best work these days early in the morning. I'm usually awake by 4am and give up on sleep by 5am. That gives me ~2 hours of quiet time before the kids get up. Lots of good stuff happens then.