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Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

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Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#41

Post by akuji1993 »

taneq wrote: post #23
sujesh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep money comes second , product validation and market fit comes first

Well, there's two types of money, aren't there? "Real" money comes after product development, market fit testing, market penetration, iteration, supporting early adopters, building market presence, etc. "Virtual" money comes after product sketching, roadmapping, pitching to VCs, and cashing out (ideally before the 'market fit testing' stage.) Edit: Oof, unpopular opinion apparently.

The issue is, that if you want to create a startup because you want to get rich from it, it's the wrong attitude all together and will probably fail. Your concern shouldn't be how to get rich quick, but how to build a viable product that solves a real issue. If you get that done, the money will come.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#42

Post by tzhenghao »

rgbrenner wrote: post #16

My entire career has been startups. On average, your startup will be a failure. If you want to create one, then it should be for an idea that you really believe in and that has value. Because you're going to have bad days--lots of them--and want to quit. And if you don't believe in what you're building, then you will quit, and it'll all be for nothing. (Plus, if you believe in what you're building and it fails, you w…

This too.

I've worked for startups a few years now, and as many HN commenters here have said, you WILL have many bad days. You'll see crazy shit once in a while, so it's almost always easier to answer your question by starting with why NOT to join a startup.

Justin Kan has a good writeup on this: https://www.atrium.co/blog/work-at-a-startup/

Read it, and then read it a second time. On your second pass, put more thought on the "what if the startup fails", as one tends to overestimate the upside (riches etc.) without weighing out the downside of the risks involved. Unless you feel "yes, this is what I sign up for" very strongly, you probably shouldn't.

Just to wrap this point up, here's why I'm where I'm at. I've "roughly" figured out something I can live with in my career. Working in a big company with big bureaucracy, slow processes and being told to do something insignificant kills me, and I'm better off working at startups and hopefully start something my own later on, despite the potential downsides.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#43

Post by jmchuster »

It certainly depends on how you're approaching it. If you're thinking it's a chance to make more money, nope, you're better off making money at your posh job, or switch to a company focused on maximum payout (e.g. netflix). If you're passionate about it no matter what and are willing to work through five years of continuous failure (e.g. airbnb's story), then no need to ask, you're going to do it no matter what.

However, if you're somewhere in the middle, I think startups are a great learning experience. Go work at an early-stage startup that will pay you less than your current job and less than your market rate, but you get to experience a different style of company and style of work. Or save up money from your posh job so you can afford to not make money for a year and try starting your own company for that time. Or just coast a bit at your posh job and take that extra energy and put it into starting a side business.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#44

Post by xrtgavin »

a13n wrote: post #40

I left Facebook 3.5 years ago to start a startup and I'm quite happy. Software engineer and founder are two different roles, and it takes time to transition. Don't expect to be wildly successful in any short period of time. Launch quickly and try to get users and talk to them. Try to make your first dollar quickly. This will help you learn about business, marketing, product market fit. I believe that starting a boots…

easy to build means easy to replace. is it true?

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#45

Post by mikekchar »

taneq wrote: post #23
sujesh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep money comes second , product validation and market fit comes first

Well, there's two types of money, aren't there? "Real" money comes after product development, market fit testing, market penetration, iteration, supporting early adopters, building market presence, etc. "Virtual" money comes after product sketching, roadmapping, pitching to VCs, and cashing out (ideally before the 'market fit testing' stage.) Edit: Oof, unpopular opinion apparently.

Ha ha! I've sometimes joked that when you start a startup you have to decide who the "customer" is -- the person using the service or the VC. I've definitely worked at startups that were milking VCs. I don't really recommend it as a thing for technically minded people to do because you end up doing a lot of crazy stuff that has nothing to do with making a good product. But it definitely happens.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#46

Post by mesid »

jmchuster wrote: post #43

It certainly depends on how you're approaching it. If you're thinking it's a chance to make more money, nope, you're better off making money at your posh job, or switch to a company focused on maximum payout (e.g. netflix). If you're passionate about it no matter what and are willing to work through five years of continuous failure (e.g. airbnb's story), then no need to ask, you're going to do it no matter what. Howe…

What's your take on a side business? What kind of thing could it be? And would it be legal?

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#47

Post by digitalixus »

I've seen people speak of how big corporations state-side offer more pay and packages, and that startups are mostly for the bored looking for new challenges and make their mark (plus a little gambling of their time that the startup will make it big).

Can confirm the same situation in Europe (Germany). With that said, I'd advise against joining a startup. In Germany, even with stereotypically strict laws favoring the employee, startups are extremely abusive.

- They will lowball you - They will lie to you about all the "great perks", mostly free fruit. Very rarely do they offer stock options and if they do, the terms designed to screw you over as much as possible (e.g. if the company doesn't go public or get bought over in 5 years, the value of any options is zero) - They expect you to work long hours, disregarding any "work-life balance" BS stereotypes about the way Europeans work

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#48

Post by throw-away-5000 »

technics256 wrote: post #35
throw-away-5000 wrote: post #20

If your motivation is making multi-millions one day, you're better off buying a lottery ticket or staying at your FAANG-equivalent job. I left my large company job 7 years ago to found my own company with a friend. We initially tried our hand at a saas product then figured out we were too green at the business side of things to make it work (read we had no idea how to sell) so moved on to web-dev consulting. Consulti…

I'm in a similar situation. How are you holding up?

Thanks for asking, I'm alright. I used to have this thought process which was 'if I didn't make X metric by Y date, I'd give this all up and go back to BigCo', well sure enough I've never ever made it but I'm still kicking around. I had to read a bunch of philosophy particularly on stoicism to get me through some of the tougher times a couple of years ago.

There's no point in focusing on the money/wealth that I didn't earn over the years because I took this path and I made a choice to. What matters is the here and now. That's not to say I don't plan for the future but I boiled it down to a simple trick to keep me going - is there progress? Is your trajectory up or down? If up, no matter how small or slow the progress is, keep grinding away another day/week/month. We're slowly adding customers, slowly improving our product to be indispensible to our current customers and getting paid on a monthly basis for it so there's a pin-hole of light at the end of the tunnel. I've already paddled half way across the ocean, I just have to keep going on.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#49

Post by arunaugustine »

I left a big corp job in Silicon Valley and returned to India to work on a startup. I must say that even though I am poorer in terms of $ earned or net-worth, I can honestly say I am happier.

I wrote an article recently about my leap of faith and four pivots. The link is in my bio.

Re: Ask HN: Leaving a Job at Big Tech Giants for Startup

#50

Post by jovisjoseph »

puranjay wrote: post #29
jovisjoseph wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem here is the dilemma when to go full-time. Its always a tough call. Compared to a side-project building up a scalable business model is a different ball game altogether. So brace for that once you go full time everything changes and without going fulltime you'll probably reach nowhere

What's a good filter for knowing when to go full-time? Covering your monthly expenses? I have a consulting business that pays me handsomely. But I also have a side business that has paid for my monthly expenses the last 3-4 months. Would that be a good metric to jump ship from consulting and go full-time with the side hustle?

Yeah, that sounds fair. But there is a small caveat here thou. The income from side projects are so volatile, sometimes you can't predict on them. You can only make them stable if you invest enough time on it and study the usage pattern. And most of the time you'll have to get on full time to get those metrics. So we will get back to that chicken and egg problem again
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