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Ask HN: Startup acquired by a large company and it sucks. What to do?

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Re: Ask HN: Startup acquired by a large company and it sucks. What to do?

#431

Post by gringoDan »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #180
gringoDan wrote: post #49

When the Dilbert comics become all too real. While you may find it difficult to get things done, the bureaucracy will leave you with a lot of time on your hands. With that time, either: 1. Pour the energy you would have put into work into side projects, starting your own company, etc. Good route to take if you are vesting. 2. Interview at other companies where you can actually make an impact. Luckily the job market i…

> 1. Pour the energy you would have put into work into side projects, starting your own company, etc. Good route to take if you are vesting. Isn't this dangerous advice? Could work done on a side project during company time end up being legally owned by their employer?

Assuming you're salaried, there is no such thing as "company time".

You should make sure to complete your work projects. Then work on your side projects. Use your own machine so as not to have the conflict of interest.

Re: Ask HN: Startup acquired by a large company and it sucks. What to do?

#432

Post by t-writescode »

Swenrekcah wrote: post #360
t-writescode wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Maybe it’s that you’ve never worked for a boss that fought that hard for your free time? Great bosses like this exist

It sounded implausible to me. Admittedly I don’t work for a large corporation but this sounded like a socially challenged persons dream of how they’d convince large groups of opposing people to their side. Hostile interactions with shelter from an all powerful HR and the vague threat of a lawsuit.

I've explicitly asked for strong barriers from external leads and developers from my manager before and gotten them. My current boss aggressively puts barriers in place to keep us from being bothered or distracted.

Re: Ask HN: Startup acquired by a large company and it sucks. What to do?

#433

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #401
ascar wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Direct link https://old.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/rkk9qg/im_a_new_s... for everyone else having a hard time figuring out how to find the actual comment. Really worth a read and absolutely puts OPs story into perspective.

odd that most in this thread think this story is fiction, some even suggest it might be a marketing ploy to peddle a book. Is really the whole world like this or is there a difference depending on jurisdiction (e.g. comments reflect values of US?). While I can't prove a negative, this story is highly plausible in Europe where legal/HR will be on your ass and even fire the CEO if it turns out they had knowledge. In 20…

Reddit in particular is infected by this kind of toxic thinking. One on the one had, I think individuals hate being fooled, and so there’s a rush to decry any remarkable or interesting anecdotes as “bullshit”. In this case in particular, I suspect the disbelievers are stuck in soul-sucking jobs they hate, and one way they cope with that is by truly believing that everyone else in the world is in a similar situation.

Its such a strange, depressing way to approach content imo. Did the story happen? Maybe, maybe not, we can’t know for sure. Do I want to believe it happened? Yes. Are there valuable aspects in the story that I can learn from and potentially use in future? Yes, absolutely. Is there any harm in me choosing to believe his anecdote is real and it’s actually made up? No, I don’t think so.

There’s actually a whole subreddit on this topic https://reddit.com/r/nothingeverhappens

Also, don’t get me wrong — there is plenty of fake content, or implausible content, that is worthy of skepticism because it has a nefarious agenda, fosters misinformation, etc. But sometimes people just need to chill out.

Re: Ask HN: Startup acquired by a large company and it sucks. What to do?

#434

Post by madrox »

throwawaythekey wrote: post #317
madrox wrote: post #130

First off, how badly does the parent company need you to be on their VMs? It's probably necessary work, but not important. Everyone will still have jobs if it doesn't finish for a couple quarters. In the meantime, let your boss know you're blocked, start tracking this as a dependency, and go work on something else. In my experience, it helps a lot to imagine the motivations behind each process in an uncynical light.…

> It's probably necessary work, but not important. I like the direction you're going with this but note that a task being necessary also implies that it is important - otherwise it would be optional! The only success I've ever had (but at a small co) with getting others to work out what is important and what isn't is by forcing the requester/decision maker to prioritize goals against each other. It gives the opportun…

We’re probably quibbling over semantics here. I use important in the dictionary sense of having a profound effect on survival. The company won’t go out of business if those VM tasks don’t get done for a couple quarter.

Re: Ask HN: Startup acquired by a large company and it sucks. What to do?

#435

Post by mbrodersen »

_skel wrote: post #37

> So I reach out to the manager and ask what is going on. This is a simple task, I said. Why does it take an entire quarter for your team to deliver? He doesn't have an answer. Your simple task, which you think would only take a few days to implement, is probably one request in a long queue of requests that team is dealing with. That means they won't be able to start on it for a long time. That team probably set up t…

Let’s compare two large organisations: NASA and SpaceX. According to astronauts who have worked for both, it takes a year to get a simple UI change implemented when working for NASA, and it takes one day when working for SpaceX. The difference is bureaucracy. Not the amount of actual work that needs to get done.

Re: Ask HN: Startup acquired by a large company and it sucks. What to do?

#436

Post by mbrodersen »

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #104
fiachamp wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of people on HN nowadays that are okay with getting nothing useful done is striking. Startup guy, you don't have to accept being part of a bloated hierarchy that rewards politics more than good decision-making. You could check out at the corpo job and start prototyping your own startup ideas. Or join another early stage startup where your performance matters. I'll be starting one soon - let's keep in touch…

if your startup ever makes it to any sort of scale, it will likely have the same problems -- they all do :)

SpaceX seems to do just fine?

Re: Ask HN: Startup acquired by a large company and it sucks. What to do?

#440

Post by achillesheels »

bastijn wrote: post #426
achillesheels wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are abstracting the personnel too much from your analysis. Clearly Apple, for example, persists and thrives in a world with such dynamism. The difference is one of talent, and the internal organization therein.

Apple is a company that has rigeous processes and hierarchies. It also operates efficiently. So we are back to the start, both company types can thrive or die. Indeed, it is the brilliant leaders (at any level of the organization) that bring excellence. In one organization that may be knowing what to hack or where to take a shortcut, in another it may be knowing how to escalate things through the organization to push…

Is the enterprise necessary to be manned?
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