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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

#81

Post by jacquesm »

SMrF wrote: post #26
jacquesm wrote: post #2

If it takes you weeks to recover from a burn-out you haven't burned out - yet. Burn out is a serious issue and some people never fully recover from it. If you're working hard and you need a break after a few months of hard labour that's normal, but it's not the same as being burned out. Otherwise a great piece and nice to get some insight in to what goes on behind the scenes of backtype.

Years ago I suffered what I would now call "burn out" although at the time I didn't know what was happening. I found this essay to be an accurate description of my experience, but I think a doctor would be a better source of information on this topic: http://www.stressdoc.com/four_stages_burnbout.htm At the worst point I was experiencing anxiety, paranoia and depression. My only strategy for coping with stress and di…

That's quite a story. Good to see you come out on the other end in one piece and much good luck on your run.

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

#82

Post by mkramlich »

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…

be a sole founder and get 100% equity. then land some paying customers. keep the 100% equity. add features, polish, maybe hire other folks, maybe give away some equity early to bring on a contributing partner with key skills, etc. then this whole "1% is generous" belief and worrying about dilution caused by outside investment rounds simply goes away. does it always make sense? no. but I think it's ideal.

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

#83

Post by jodrellblank »

theoneill wrote: post #59
_delirium wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In a long enough list, by definition it's reasonable. The problem is, this was a short list.

No, the problem is that in a list of eleven points, you pick one to make a fuss about - alledging that the original poster said them being white was a bad thing.

It was in a list including "two degrees" (good) and "burned out twice in 6 months" (bad). Why do you take away that he said white is bad?

Why do you have an issue with skin colour being mentioned, but not age or gender or which college the degrees were from or how many hours they work or which specific tech they use? Why are you pushing so hard to make a great big racial controversy out it?

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

#84

Post by sofuture »

jrockway wrote: post #79
sofuture wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't say otherwise. I'm saying that my current job, taken as a whole, as valued by me, benefits me more than my last job.

But the implication was that it had something to do with it being a startup. There are plenty of startups with neurotic founders, and plenty of big companies that aren't a Kafkaesque nightmare.

Right, I implied that it had something to do with being a startup because it does. In this specific example.

I'm not saying that 'all startups good, all big company bad' is some sort of globally applicable law and I'm not sure how or why anyone would read that into what I've said.

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

#85

Post by [deleted] »

vaksel wrote: post #60
pg wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by "real" financing you mean a series A round, then you're probably mistaken. People who join a startup with just angel funding might get roughly 4-5x as much stock as they'd get post series A. It's only a worse deal if a series A round makes a company 4-5x less risky. There's a market price for all the different options, from founder to early hire to later hire. It would not make sense for there to be points on t…

"You're also mistaken in saying that an early hire will get 1 percent tops. This number varies by 30-40x, " so the #1 and #2 employees are going to get 60% equity combined? Or was that x supposed to be a % sign?

[deleted]

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

#86

Post by umjames »

jrockway wrote: post #78

My experience as being employee 8 million at a Large Corporation is nearly identical. I can choose my own tools, work from home when I want to, take breaks, etc. We've already taken care of the cash flow thing, so it ends up being much more relaxing than working for a small company. We aren't going to go out of business if our software isn't released tomorrow, so we have lots of time to write quality solutions. We ca…

I assume you don't want to tell us which Large Corporation you work for, but I think your experience is not the typical BigCo employee experience.

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

#87

Post by dustingetz »

mrshoe wrote: post #80
vaksel wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You're also mistaken in saying that an early hire will get 1 percent tops. This number varies by 30-40x, " so the #1 and #2 employees are going to get 60% equity combined? Or was that x supposed to be a % sign?

One company might choose to give an early hire 20%, possibly even making them a cofounder. Another company might give an early hire 0.5%. Hence the 40x variability in the amount of equity given to early hires.

all equity isn't created equally -- .5% of google is worth vastly more than 20% of a brand new startup.

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

#88

Post by StavrosK »

jrockway wrote: post #78

My experience as being employee 8 million at a Large Corporation is nearly identical. I can choose my own tools, work from home when I want to, take breaks, etc. We've already taken care of the cash flow thing, so it ends up being much more relaxing than working for a small company. We aren't going to go out of business if our software isn't released tomorrow, so we have lots of time to write quality solutions. We ca…

It's better if you actually own the small company, though...

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

#89

Post by mrduncan »

jrockway wrote: post #78

My experience as being employee 8 million at a Large Corporation is nearly identical. I can choose my own tools, work from home when I want to, take breaks, etc. We've already taken care of the cash flow thing, so it ends up being much more relaxing than working for a small company. We aren't going to go out of business if our software isn't released tomorrow, so we have lots of time to write quality solutions. We ca…

It was less flexible, and every year, we "don't have enough money" for a raise. Eventually it was very stressful, my input didn't matter at all, and I got paid nothing.

As always, it depends on the company you're working for (it sounds like you're working for a great one!). I'm sure there are plenty of people who could claim the exact same thing while working for a big corp.

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

#90

Post by theoneill »

jodrellblank wrote: post #83
theoneill wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a long enough list, by definition it's reasonable. The problem is, this was a short list.

No, the problem is that in a list of eleven points, you pick one to make a fuss about - alledging that the original poster said them being white was a bad thing. It was in a list including "two degrees" (good) and "burned out twice in 6 months" (bad). Why do you take away that he said white is bad? Why do you have an issue with skin colour being mentioned, but not age or gender or which college the degrees were from…

The list _delirium and I are referring to is this one of 4 items:

    All three appear to be single white 20something males
I am in fact pretty nearly as bothered by the claim that it's a problem that all 3 are male, or in their 20s.

It's lame when someone writes off a group of people based on such superficial characteristics.

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