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I’m considering taking an in-house position with an incubator that focuses on building and supporting start-up companies, in conjunction with a related VC firm that funds the incubated companies, and I’m curious if anyone has any experiences working for an incubator and could comment on work/life balance, hours, etc.

I’m currently in-house at a mature start-up, which has been pretty good for work life balance but is starting to feel a little stagnant, and the incubator seems like an interesting opportunity (and would be a bump up in compensation and title, plus some amount of equity in the start-ups), but worried the hours will be appreciably worse, so I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts or experiences.

I'm currently working in-house at a start-up supported by an start-up incubator that has a VC arm. I wonder if you are interviewing with the incubator supporting us, haha.

From what I can gather, the hours will be tougher at the incubator than at the start-up, mostly because of the VC side. You'll be dealing with due diligence on companies and tussling with other investors and start-ups over the financing documents, and that stuff will be very intense and comes at all hours. On top of that, you'll need to deal with the incubator side (e.g., real estate, compliance and licenses, environmental, etc.) and internal legal issues (e.g., labor & employment).

I think it's definitely a good step up in terms of career progression, but at the sacrifice of the cushy start-up hours. It won't be biglaw bad because you can simply outsource things to outside counsel. I currently have young kids, so if I were in your position I wouldn't make a similar move right now, but I would definitely consider it in a few years.

I think it is pretty difficult to answer this question, but in my experience working with incubators, the hours won't be that bad. You're likely going to see very routine legal issues around company formation, incorporation, initial equity issuances, advisor agreements, etc. The financing documents at such early stage are rarely negotiated heavily. For the later stage VC investments, you'll almost certainly have outside counsel doing docs and legal due diligence; you'll want to check over their shoulder and ensure the trains are moving on-time, and maybe the occasional late night to get a closing done, but shouldn't be too bad. I think you should be able to get a good vibe based on interviewing with the other lawyers there.

OP here. Thanks for the responses so far! I don’t have kids, and my spouse works a lot too, so adding an extra hour or so per day wouldn’t be so bad, it’s more the consistent nights and weekend and general unpredictability of law firm life which I’m trying not to get back to. I’m inclined to take the job, but any other thoughts would be great to hear!