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Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

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Re: Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

#31

Post by Findeton »

AndreyErmakov wrote: post #13
advertising wrote: post #11

Anytime I would see a resume with CEO / Founder on it I would immediately pass. My thinking was this person won't be a good fit working for someone else if they felt the need to strike out on their own. Just like I wouldn't hire myself. This was when hiring for a sales role mind you. Obviously different for different positions / experience. CTO wouldn't scare me if we were hiring for a lower position.

Maybe people wouldn't feel "the need to strike out on their own" if they were better treated by their former employers. It's the number one reason why people generally attempt to "strike out on their own" - lack of recognition and perspectives as an employed worker.

Also, some people just have ideas and the desire to implement them.

Re: Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

#32

Post by nautical »

advertising wrote: post #11

Anytime I would see a resume with CEO / Founder on it I would immediately pass. My thinking was this person won't be a good fit working for someone else if they felt the need to strike out on their own. Just like I wouldn't hire myself. This was when hiring for a sales role mind you. Obviously different for different positions / experience. CTO wouldn't scare me if we were hiring for a lower position.

I see that your website is on squarespace and cant see much tech being used in your company so for you CTO might not make much sense but it cant be generalized.

Re: Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

#33

Post by dalerus »

It shouldn't affect your prospects too much. Just keep your skills sharp while you an building and running your startup.

I've built and failed at two startups. And after those failures I've found one of the most fulfilling jobs I've had in my career. I've learned so much about business building, managing, sales, and finances over the last few years. Use those skills you learn while building to help find your next role!

I'll build something in the future, once I've had a few years to recover from the startup world.

Re: Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

#34

Post by tostitos1979 »

galistoca wrote: post #27

As long as you have solid skills, success or failure doesn't really matter at all (although if you were successful you wouldn't be applying for a job, which leaves us with failure in this case). From my experience companies only look at your objective skills when they hire you. And a lot of large companies actually respect that you have worked on your own company even if it failed. So don't worry about what it means,…

Mind sharing details on what you mean by "preparing"? Like .. a weekend worth or a lot more? I go into interviews with a half day of prep and admittedly it isn't always pretty. How does someone with a high responsibility/workload current job get the focused prep time? A friend of mine said "3 months to prep for a Google interview" ... I couldn't believe him.

Re: Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

#35

Post by reboog711 »

In the past 20 years; I have had more than 10 different startup ventures; all with varying degrees of success; none of them were the "Golden Ticket" that allowed me to retire.

All were self-funded if that makes a difference.

It has not hurt my chances of finding paying consulting clients. Many of my clients like that I have that experience; and business experience is awesome when you're talking to small business owners who are not tech people and just want someone they can trust to build their project. Often the startup venture / project can be used as 'proof' of technical skill.

If you choose to list the startup company on your resume, you can easily give yourself a title / position relevant to the job you are after [programming / management / CTO / whatever ]

I haven't been in a traditional 9-5 employment situation in a long time; so I'm not sure about that area.

Re: Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

#36

Post by beachstartup »

rpedela wrote: post #30
beachstartup wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, a lot of entrepreneurs learn this stuff through a bunch of failed businesses where they do everything themselves. keyword: failed.

It is not that hard to do the business side in the early days. That isn't even in the top 10 reasons companies fail.

really? overspending and poor record keeping (accounting and control), terrible or non-existent sales and marketing, inability to recruit good people, etc.

these are 'business side' things, and are basically the most common reason companies fail.

Re: Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

#37

Post by beachstartup »

nostrademons wrote: post #19
beachstartup wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i think this is the reason most companies fail. people do too much, and aren't able to do a good job at any of it. people lie to themselves and think it's even remotely possible, when it's not. you're going to do a shit job at every one of those 4 jobs if they're all your responsibility. i think companies that raise or make money quickly are able to actually dedicate people to very, very, very critical shit, and will…

It can be a big competitive advantage to do everything yourself, because you see inefficiencies that fall through the cracks between job descriptions. That's what's left after you've specialized and optimized: all the things about the product that suck because they are nobody's responsibility. Fix them and you not only are doing something that your competitors aren't, but you're doing things they can't do without re-…

> It can be a big competitive advantage to do everything yourself, because you see inefficiencies that fall through the cracks between job descriptions

i agree, but this is begging the question of actually being able to do a good job at any of it. i'm not saying it's impossible, i'm saying most can't.

Re: Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

#39

Post by nostrademons »

beachstartup wrote: post #37
nostrademons wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be a big competitive advantage to do everything yourself, because you see inefficiencies that fall through the cracks between job descriptions. That's what's left after you've specialized and optimized: all the things about the product that suck because they are nobody's responsibility. Fix them and you not only are doing something that your competitors aren't, but you're doing things they can't do without re-…

> It can be a big competitive advantage to do everything yourself, because you see inefficiencies that fall through the cracks between job descriptions i agree, but this is begging the question of actually being able to do a good job at any of it. i'm not saying it's impossible, i'm saying most can't.

The point isn't to do a good job of it, the point is to do a better job than the people who are not doing it at all.

This is probably the most counterintuitive part of founding a startup that I've observed so far: if you're doing it right, you'll suck at everything you do. Why? Because if you don't suck at something, it's time to seek funding, hire people, and train them to do it. The founder's job is to seek out problems where everyone else sucks more and yet people still want it, which itself is quite a challenging task.

Re: Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?

#40

Post by firebase »

wtvanhest wrote: post #15

I closed my startup 1 year ago. Your career prospects are at least what they were before you started your company, but you will have to answer much different questions than most people. 1. People will be concerned that you don't want to work for anyone else. It is important to remind the people that you meet with that you were willing to take on many, many more bosses than a typical employee. Customers, investors, fu…

May I ask what kind of products your startup was based upon, like online shopping, online community, real estate etc. and if possible what do you believe was the core reason or events that lead to its shutdown. Thanks.
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