I didn't tell my Y Combinator batchmates I had a kid. I worried they'd think I wasn't hardcore enough.

Nicholas Charriere said the parents in his YC batch kept their kids "hush-hush."Nicholas CharriereNicholas Charriere had a kid before entering Y Combinator.He kept his kid mostly a secret. "I don't want people thinking I'm not as hardcore," he said.Charriere said that talking about having a kid was "not the vibe."This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nicholas Charriere, the 36-year-old cofounder of Mocha, an AI app builder. He lives in the Bay Area. It's been edited for length an