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My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

nathanmarz.com

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Re: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

#41

Post by rdl »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #20
rdl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real burnout is something like losing confidence in your own ability, or the overall system or world. It doesn't go away with time, per se, but requires a real change of your life....like getting a manual labor type job for a few years, going back to school, etc.

Absolutely. I burned out at a tech job in 2000, and spent several subsequent years working as a climbing instructor, outdoor gear retail clerk, cable technician, etc. ... anything that didn't require the use of a computer. There's a difference between simply needing a vacation, and being completely and absolutely disgusted with your field and everyone in it.

What got you back into tech?

I think that i am fortunate in that I direct all my wrath and loathing outward.

Re: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

#42

Post by _delirium »

theoneill wrote: post #21
m_eiman wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not bad that they're white - it's bad if they're three identical clones.

And their race is supposed to predict this? I've heard white people can actually be quite different from one another.

If it's one item in a long list it seems reasonable to take it as one factor, especially if they're, in the case I've encountered most often, twentysomething male nonimmigrant whites who grew up in an urban area in the northeast or west coast, in a middle-class or better family. Any one of those factors aren't particularly predictive, but taken as a whole they narrow down a culture with some accuracy.

Re: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

#43

Post by _delirium »

dnaquin wrote: post #40
pjhyett wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did 5% of 50M stop being a lot of money? edit: I think something far more deceiving is employee #75 receiving 10k shares and the impression they're walking away with gobs of money after a big sale.

5% is unrealistic. 1% is. 50 million * .01 * .65 (tax) / 4 years = 81,250 considering opportunity cost and time spent. likely not worth it.

It's also often not even 1% of 50m, but 1% of (50m minus liquidation preferences).

Re: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

#44

Post by rdl »

pjhyett wrote: post #39
rdl wrote: post #16

I personally think the first one to five employees in a minimally funded startup with small m&a exit as the likely exit are getting a bad deal, vs. the founders or employees who join after financing. An early employee will get about a percent tops as an individual contributor...maybe up to five percent tops if he is more of a vp engineering. In exchange, a seriously below market salary, equally high if not higher ris…

When did 5% of 50M stop being a lot of money? edit: I think something far more deceiving is employee #75 receiving 10k shares and the impression they're walking away with gobs of money after a big sale.

Someone who comes in for five is a potential founder anyway.

At 1 you have another fifty percent dillution from follow on financing, and the odds of any exit at all.

Exmployee 75 is making market, and a 75 man shop will not sell at 50. They are shooting for 500 or more, or failure.

A 5 person startup might sell for 5 to 10 direct, in which case your 1 just bought a nice car, after tax, but not a really nice car, and less than your risk adjusted forgone salary vs. Being a soulless corporate drone in defense, or maybe number 75 at a well funded tech company.

Re: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

#45

Post by _delirium »

rdl wrote: post #32
yummyfajitas wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always worked in relatively diverse environments and I have enjoyed it and would look for the same in my next employer. My current company had no diversity until I joined (the founder and employee #1 even went to the same school), but it never struck me as being worth thinking about. I'm honestly curious, what benefits do you get from a company with ethnic diversity?

Racial and ethnic diversity really seem like non issues...they are pretty superficial differences within a work environment. Age, children, and sex are a little more relevant, and even those are pretty minor and only loosely correlated with traits relevant in a work environment. Bringing a windows guy into a unix shop, or hiring a sales guy too early at a product development stage startup, or hiring a stupid or lazy…

I've often found cliquishness when there's, say, five people, of which four are from the same age/sex/ethnic/cultural/etc. background, and the fifth is from something different. It's worse when the four are from a quite narrow background of similarity, like four guys of the same age/race/major/etc. from Stanford, or four immigrants from the same country.

Re: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

#46

Post by pjhyett »

dnaquin wrote: post #40
pjhyett wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did 5% of 50M stop being a lot of money? edit: I think something far more deceiving is employee #75 receiving 10k shares and the impression they're walking away with gobs of money after a big sale.

5% is unrealistic. 1% is. 50 million * .01 * .65 (tax) / 4 years = 81,250 considering opportunity cost and time spent. likely not worth it.

GitHub's first employee owns more than 1% of the company, so I'm not sure why it's unrealistic. Maybe in the world of businesses letting VC's tell them how to run their company this is the norm, but it doesn't have to be.

Re: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

#47

Post by rdl »

dnaquin wrote: post #40
pjhyett wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did 5% of 50M stop being a lot of money? edit: I think something far more deceiving is employee #75 receiving 10k shares and the impression they're walking away with gobs of money after a big sale.

5% is unrealistic. 1% is. 50 million * .01 * .65 (tax) / 4 years = 81,250 considering opportunity cost and time spent. likely not worth it.

Right..when your best case is less than salary differential, before factoring in working 3x more, and the ten percent or less odds of getting the 50 exit! Something is irrational about participating.

That said I would work with certain people or on certain projects as an early employee. With some, it would be economically rational, with others then entertainment value would be worth it.

Re: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

#48

Post by studer »

rdl wrote: post #41
thaumaturgy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. I burned out at a tech job in 2000, and spent several subsequent years working as a climbing instructor, outdoor gear retail clerk, cable technician, etc. ... anything that didn't require the use of a computer. There's a difference between simply needing a vacation, and being completely and absolutely disgusted with your field and everyone in it.

What got you back into tech? I think that i am fortunate in that I direct all my wrath and loathing outward.

Inamorata? Did you mean to write that, or did your phone just teach me a new word? :-)

Re: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

#50

Post by dpritchett »

pjhyett wrote: post #46
dnaquin wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5% is unrealistic. 1% is. 50 million * .01 * .65 (tax) / 4 years = 81,250 considering opportunity cost and time spent. likely not worth it.

GitHub's first employee owns more than 1% of the company, so I'm not sure why it's unrealistic. Maybe in the world of businesses letting VC's tell them how to run their company this is the norm, but it doesn't have to be.

GitHub also brags about not taking outside funding, so it's a potentially better deal for them: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1454597
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