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Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

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Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#81

Post by ryandrake »

theparanoid wrote: post #47
coreyp_1 wrote: post #12

You're right: 1 person can't replace you. Can 3? Can 5? You must reorganize, if merely to save your sanity. Hire 1 person and start training them, then hire the next. For 1 week, write down everything that you do for your company, and then group the like tasks in order to figure out how many/what type of person(people) to hire/train. Start looking for that person, while writing down everything that you do the 2nd wee…

They already said "it's been hard to retain developers." One retention method is paying a fuckload of money.

...which presumably you now have because you're being acquired.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#82

Post by adventured »

dsacco wrote: post #26
reckoner2 wrote: post #19

There are professionals out there whose job it is to help out people in situations like yours. Before you make any life changing decisions I would talk to one. CEO's, Hedgefund Managers, Sport Stars, they all talk to psychologists. Give it a try.

I strongly second this suggestion. Unfortunately there is a stigma to speaking with mental health professionals, but I'm a strong proponent of doing so even when there is nothing necessarily "wrong" in your life. Speaking as someone who just recently experienced burnout for the first time in his career (along with losing several friends in the past year), and is now taking it easy for a while, you owe it to yourself…

> Unfortunately there is a stigma to speaking with mental health professionals

That's pretty easy to solve: you don't have to tell anyone except perhaps a spouse (who should understand once the context is fully explained).

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#83

Post by wolco »

throwaway10595 wrote: post #5
dudul wrote: post #3

May be a stupid question but: can you suck it up until the acquisition goes through, take the money, leave, and try bagging stuff at a grocery store for a few months? Does the acquisition involves you signing a contract and being forced to stick around for a few years?

> Does the acquisition involves you signing a contract and being forced to stick around for a few years? Yes they range from 3 to 5 years, with much of the compensation coming from future earnings.

I would not agree to those terms because chances are you will get much less than you expect. Hire help and train and take more time off.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#84

Post by vacri »

creepydata wrote: post #49
threesixandnine wrote: post #28

Go work on a contruction site for a few days. You'll be running back to your old 'miserable life', believe you me. What is it with this romantic view of supposedly stress free jobs of filling shelves with food or digging a hole for a garden tree ( the easiest thing in construction ). I feel your pain since I get similar feelings as you sometimes but then I remember 20 something me doing roofing and breaking ice on a…

I'll offer a counterpoint, as long as your management is effective there's plenty to love about those sorts of jobs. They are actually not bad at all other than the pay. No stress, no thinking, lots of moving around, no worry about the "bigger picture" as a founder must do. I've cleaned hotel rooms, stocked shelves at a discount store, worked the register at a grocery store, and unloaded trucks in a wearhouse. The on…

> No stress

I've had my share of these jobs as well, and they pay terribly. Living hand-to-mouth is a stress in itself. And I had zero dependents. Being a founder is exceptionally stressful, but don't overcompensate and pretend that life as a minimum wager is carefree.

The proof in the pudding is this: people don't move into these jobs if they have something else going on. Hospitality is a classic example - full of young people, but unless they become managers or chefs, they're out the door as soon as they can do something else. There are very few middle-aged people working on their feet in hospitality.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#86

Post by koolba »

Take the money and run (figuratively).

Do the acquisition. Presumably there will be some mandatory retention period. Once their check clears, mentally check out and see what happens. Take a vacay, start coming in around 11am, don't answer emails off hours...

One of two things will happen, either the rest of the company will pick up the slack or the whole place will fall apart. Either way your money will be in the bank so who cares right?

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#87

Post by ryandrake »

> "The product is just too complicated (tons of domain knowledge required) for someone to come in and take over."

This statement is almost certainly not true. Anything can be learned by someone sufficiently motivated. You, yourself, were not born with the knowledge needed to run your company, were you?

> "Additionally, the product just isn't that interesting (glorified CRUD app) and it's been hard to retain developers."

People's motivations are different. Some people want to work on some super-interesting cutting edge product. Fine, you can't offer that, so forget them. Some people will do any job so long as they're rewarded with enough money. If you're about to get acquired, you may find you suddenly have the ability to hire these people. There are also tons of underemployed tech folks out there suffering away as "engineer number 7 from the left" who would love that rare chance to lead a project, move into product management, and/or finally have some ownership stake in what they're working on. They're probably super easy to find too. Just wait in the parking lot of any major tech employer at around 6:30-7:00PM and look for the people walking out the door with sad, exhausted faces :)

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#88

Post by vacri »

throwaway10595 wrote: post #5
dudul wrote: post #3

May be a stupid question but: can you suck it up until the acquisition goes through, take the money, leave, and try bagging stuff at a grocery store for a few months? Does the acquisition involves you signing a contract and being forced to stick around for a few years?

> Does the acquisition involves you signing a contract and being forced to stick around for a few years? Yes they range from 3 to 5 years, with much of the compensation coming from future earnings.

Can you negotiate a small sabbatical early in that period?

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#89

Post by Mz »

adventured wrote: post #82
dsacco wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly second this suggestion. Unfortunately there is a stigma to speaking with mental health professionals, but I'm a strong proponent of doing so even when there is nothing necessarily "wrong" in your life. Speaking as someone who just recently experienced burnout for the first time in his career (along with losing several friends in the past year), and is now taking it easy for a while, you owe it to yourself…

> Unfortunately there is a stigma to speaking with mental health professionals That's pretty easy to solve: you don't have to tell anyone except perhaps a spouse (who should understand once the context is fully explained).

Not necessarily true. People might see you going to the office of the mental health professional, or leaving it. If the practice has no other purpose, it can be easy to infer you are getting some kind of mental health help.

If it is a touchy topic for you as an individual and/or if you live in a small town or otherwise have a situation where someone might see you, make the inference and make it into an issue, this can be a not insignificant logistical detail to deal with. Just because for you personally all would be fine by simply not mentioning it doesn't mean this is true for everyone.

Re: Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore

#90

Post by dsacco »

adventured wrote: post #82
dsacco wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly second this suggestion. Unfortunately there is a stigma to speaking with mental health professionals, but I'm a strong proponent of doing so even when there is nothing necessarily "wrong" in your life. Speaking as someone who just recently experienced burnout for the first time in his career (along with losing several friends in the past year), and is now taking it easy for a while, you owe it to yourself…

> Unfortunately there is a stigma to speaking with mental health professionals That's pretty easy to solve: you don't have to tell anyone except perhaps a spouse (who should understand once the context is fully explained).

In my experience the stigma is not people struggling with judgement from others, but people struggling with judgement from themselves.
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