Avoiding Over-Parenting to Preserve Agency

Ashish outlines giving his son choice, natural consequences, and when to intervene for safety or development.

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Ashish Kundra is the CEO of Conceptual, a growth agency that helps companies like Cursor, Perplexity, Superhuman, Fenty Beauty, GPTZero, and dozens more. Prior to that, he led growth at DuckDuckGo and founded two other companies.

He’s also a husband and the father of a four-year-old son. In this episode, Ashish shares why starting a company when his son was one made sense for his family, how being married to a pediatrician shapes their parenting, and why he believes small falls prevent big falls. We discussed:

Being married to a pediatrician and how that shapes parenting: Why Ashish sees it as a major advantage in handling health, nutrition, and everyday parenting decisions.
Starting a company when his son was one: Why Ashish felt that early parenthood was still the right time to build something of his own.
Avoiding over-parenting: How he gives his son more agency and lets natural consequences do some of the teaching.
Why small falls prevent big falls: How Ashish thinks about struggle, discomfort, and building resilience early.
Tracking happiness and contentment: Why he journals regularly and what he’s learned about sleep, exercise, and stress.
Why your child is not your trophy: How he thinks about ambition, identity, and raising a son without ego.

Where to find Ashish Kundra