Editor’s note: ExitEvent and WRALTechWire will be cooperating in presenting news about the region’s entrepreneurial sector. Today, Trinket founder Elliott Hauser explains why he believes startups with families are better equipped to accomplish missions that matter. He likes teams with kids, and here’s why.

DURHAM, N.C. – When you think “startups” you probably think young, white, male confers playing ping-pong and shooting Nerf guns at each other during coding binges in someone’s apartment. This image is increasingly not representative of startups as a whole, and that’s a good thing.

Startup Families
At trinket, four out of our six team members are parents. Five out of six of us have spouses. The median age is solidly in the mid-30s. We have plenty of fun, but there are no Nerf guns in the office. This composition not only makes us better able to realize our vision of everyone in the world teaching each other what they know, it’s increasingly common.

I don’t personally have kids but I’ve seen firsthand that the maturity and good nature required to care for kids has translated directly into a more sustainable, effective and forward-thinking culture for us. It’s a cliche perhaps, but “making the world a better place for our children” is indeed a powerful motivator and makes the vision we have of pervasive open teaching that much more tangible.

We’re not alone in this. I’m part of an occasional CEO breakfast of local companies that are post-Angel, pre-VC. An informal headcount finds again that founders with kids are the majority. One of the great strengths of our community is our ability to combine our businesses, families and our philanthropic passions. I’m pretty sure that our experience on a recent snow day where kids *almost* outnumbered team members on a ‘daily standup’ video chat was more common than you might think. 

The full column can be read at ExitEvent.

(C) ExitEvent