Locked in and celibate: For young tech founders, dating is a bug, not a feature

Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

"There's two things that I care about the most: the gym and my work," says Mahir Laul.

The 18-year-old took a leave of absence from New York University this past fall to work full-time on his HR tech startup, Velric. While his classmates are taking shots and hooking up, Laul is coding and lifting. That means almost no time for romance.

"I am obsessed with work," he tells me. "My love life is in the gutters."

His young founder friends are a similar story, he says.