Question: What is your take on entrepreneurs who have young children or otherwise active family lives?  Is this a factor in funding decisions?  I try to live with a family-first mentality but find it hard to compete with young unattached entrepreneurs who can put startup-first.

My answer is simple – this shouldn’t be a factor in funding decisions.

Unfortunately, I know plenty of investors who have lots of inappropriate (at least in my book) biases. This is one of them. There are also plenty of gender, race, and age biases out there. There are endless discussions in the blogosphere about this so I won’t add to the discussion other than to express my opinion, which is that these biases suck.

I’ve worked with many entrepreneurs covering a huge age range, gender dynamic, ethnic mix, and family size. Success comes in many forms, with many styles, and many different dynamics. While each person is constrained by having multiple priorities, balancing conflicting priorities is an essential skill of any entrepreneur. Being able to shift between commitments is vital over the course of an entrepreneurial life span.

As an entrepreneur, you’ll just have to work through it. And search for investors who don’t have these biases – fortunately they exist!