Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

State of Startups

stateofstartups.firstround.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 122 posts

Re: State of Startups

#61

Post by sctb »

Dowwie wrote: post #17
ValG wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't see that when I posted. Usually HN catches dupes, but I posted this on mobile on the go. My bad.

It's not on you. :) HN ought to match on dupes like this.

The software allows resubmissions of stories that didn't get significant attention after enough time has past and there's no longer any hope for them. It does this so that those stories have more than one chance, which is often needed before they catch on. Sorry that it wasn't yours that did! Community members have analyzed the submission data to see if there's any way for submitters to do better than random here and it seems like there isn't.

Re: State of Startups

#62

Post by openplatypus »

shanwang wrote: post #35
jdavis703 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but you (generally) get other things like universal healthcare, free or cheap university, retirement plans, no need for a car due to proper urban planning, etc. In the US you have to shell out for all these things, paying into a private 401(k) for retirement, paying back student loan debt, paying for your health insurance etc. And these are at well funded tech firms.

that's partially true, but you forget european countries usually have higher tax than US (not only income tax, but also VAT, fuel tax, etc). here in London a mid-level engineer, which I assume is the bottom half of senior software engineers, are typically paid £50-£60k/year in startups, which usually have poor pension schemes. £50k is about $60k and you already start paying for 40% tax for the top £10k of your salary…

That might be true for start-ups. VP level engineer in the bank can yield £80-120K and that does not include bonuses and other perks.

If you plan to run a start-up, and you can have remote first organisation (physical co-location is not required by say client attendance or manufacturing process) then do so!

And if you do stay in London, compete with banks for best talent with your wallets, not ping-pong tables.

Re: State of Startups

#63

Post by EduardoBautista »

> 9. Are you optimizing for growth or profitability?

> Profitability - 39%

> Growth - 61%

This is what happens when your business goal is to get acquired and not to have a business sustained by paying customers.

Re: State of Startups

#64

Post by [deleted] »

taneq wrote: post #22
brianwawok wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What should first and second hire get? 1 or 2% doesn't seem crazy after a seed round.

Anyone who puts in sweat equity should get double digits IMO (unless the company has been around for years as a one man band, and maybe even then.)

[deleted]

Re: State of Startups

#65

Post by pc86 »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #63

> 9. Are you optimizing for growth or profitability? > Profitability - 39% > Growth - 61% This is what happens when your business goal is to get acquired and not to have a business sustained by paying customers.

Well this is one of the few but key differences between a "startup" and a "business."

A business that isn't profitable is either a hobby or a bad idea. A startup that isn't growing is dead. Personally I'd rather make $5/10/15/25k a month with a business than kill myself trying to get millions in funding, pay myself a $10k/mo in salary and leave with nothing through either failure, dilution or some combination thereof.

Re: State of Startups

#66

Post by [deleted] »

spyspy wrote: post #45
greenspot wrote: post #14

tl;dr because the presentation is super long. I just picked data which I find interesting and not obvious, there's much more information which I don't cover. Data is in chronological order and often aggregated to less numbers. 700 founders inside and outside of FirstRound were surveyed. - 7 of 10 say bitcoin is overhyped - cofounder relationship: 5% fired their cofounder, 5% are strained, 40% collegial, 28% best frie…

What defines a mid-level engineer?

[deleted]

Re: State of Startups

#68

Post by codingdave »

tedmiston wrote: post #57
codingdave wrote: post #49

State of Venture-backed Startups. Just to be clear. It is a specific subset of the larger startup picture.

This really depends on your definition of a "startup" vs small business, lifestyle business, etc.

I guess that is technically true, but if anyone who is NOT a VC is buying into the idea that VC backing is the only valid definition of a startup... you have drunk too much of the kool-aid.

Re: State of Startups

#69

Post by GrumpyNl »

“One of the problems with raising money is it teaches you bad habits from the start,” said Jason Fried, the co-founder of the software company Basecamp, who has written frequently on the perversions of the venture capital industry. “If you’re an entrepreneur and you have a bunch of money in the bank, you get good at spending money.”

But if companies are forced to generate revenue from the beginning, “what you get really good at is making money,” Mr. Fried said. “And that’s a much better habit for a business to work on early on, to survive on their own rather than be dependent on money people.”

Re: State of Startups

#70

Post by mi100hael »

spyspy wrote: post #45
greenspot wrote: post #14

tl;dr because the presentation is super long. I just picked data which I find interesting and not obvious, there's much more information which I don't cover. Data is in chronological order and often aggregated to less numbers. 700 founders inside and outside of FirstRound were surveyed. - 7 of 10 say bitcoin is overhyped - cofounder relationship: 5% fired their cofounder, 5% are strained, 40% collegial, 28% best frie…

What defines a mid-level engineer?

I'd say someone who's not in a senior position like team lead but more than 3 years removed from college.
Post reply on HN