Being a Dad at Two Hypergrowth AI Startups | Lee Robinson (Dad of 1, Cursor)

Feb 19, 2026

Lee Robinson, VP of Developer Education at Cursor and former Vercel lead, is a husband and dad juggling hypergrowth AI startups and family life. He talks about how fatherhood reshaped his priorities and empathy. He discusses navigating startup pace while parenting, coping with pregnancy loss and anxiety, setting boundaries, sharing household responsibilities, and raising kids alongside rapidly advancing AI.

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INSIGHT

Parenthood Reshapes Empathy And Perspective

Becoming a dad broadened Lee Robinson's empathy and respect for other parents and his own parents.
He now sees everyday struggles differently after experiencing parenting challenges firsthand during his daughter's first year.

ANECDOTE

Joining Cursor As A Remote Parent

Lee worried Cursor's young, San Francisco-centered team might not embrace a remote parent, but the company adapted and added a New York office.
He moved from Vercel's remote-friendly culture to Cursor and found his initial fears quickly calmed as Cursor embraced remote work.

ANECDOTE

Miscarriage And Delivery Anxiety Shaped Their Decision

Their path to parenthood included a miscarriage and high anxiety around childbirth, which made them appreciate life's fragility.
Those difficulties made Lee more aware of risks during delivery and the emotional weight before their daughter's birth.

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Lee Robinson is the VP of Developer Education at Cursor, one of the fastest-growing AI developer tools in the world. Before Cursor, he spent five years at Vercel helping define how modern developers learn and build on the web.

He’s also a husband and a dad to a young daughter, with a second daughter on the way. When I first invited Lee on the show, he had a five-month-old baby and felt like he was deep in the trenches of new parenthood. Nearly a year later, we finally sat down to talk about what that first year of fatherhood was really like.

In this episode, Lee shares how becoming a dad changed his perspective on work, ambition, empathy, and priorities. He talks about parenting while working inside hypergrowth startups, navigating family planning with an intense career, setting boundaries, sharing the load at home, and how Lee thinks about AI, education, and raising kids in a rapidly changing world. We discussed:

Becoming a dad inside hypergrowth startups: What it was like navigating new parenthood while working at two of the fastest-growing companies in tech.
Questioning readiness for fatherhood: How uncertainty, self-doubt, and honest conversations with his wife shaped the decision to start a family.
Miscarriage and pregnancy anxiety: The emotional challenges that came before their first daughter and how it changed Lee’s perspective on control and fear.
Setting boundaries without losing ambition: Why prioritizing health and family actually made Lee better at his job, not worse.
Sharing the load at home: How Lee and his wife divide responsibilities, protect evening routines, and make remote work actually work for their family.
Raising kids in an AI-powered world: Lee’s thoughts on education, curiosity, and why he wants his daughters to believe they can build and shape the future.

Where to find Lee Robinson