My experience as the first employee of a Y Combinator startup

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 12:11 AM UTC

theoneill wrote: post #90

jodrellblank wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by staunch » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 12:43 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #98

StavrosK wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

So that I can spend 99% of my time doing something I'm bad at, and 1% of my time doing something I'm good at? No thanks. As an employee, I spend at least 80% of my time doing my best work -- no billing, no taxes, no finding new clients. I wake up, do some programming, chat with coworkers, eat lunch, do some more programming, then go home. And oh yeah, I get paid even if the company has a slow month or year. Don't get…

Post by _pius » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 3:41 AM UTC

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…

Post by plinkplonk » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 4:33 AM UTC

drewcrawford wrote: post #24

sofuture wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably true, but there's a lot more that goes into employment decisions beyond compensation. As an early startup employee, I'm working for (all things considered) less money than I was when I was working in the defense industry. But I also don't loathe my job or lay awake at night, stressed about the idiocy and bureaucracy that made my days hellish, Kafkaesque, comedic nightmares. That's worth more a LOT mor…

False dilemma: there are plenty of jobs that pay fair market rates that don't involve hellish idiocy and bureaucracy. It's not somehow automatic in companies that are a different age than post-founder pre-funding. There's nothing about a pre-funded startup that magically banishes the "kafkaesque". Conversely, there's nothing about being well-funded that keeps you from sleeping at night (quite the opposite, actually).

Post by netcan » Tue, Jul 13, 2010, 5:49 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #92

zhyder wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There's a market price for all the different options" The market isn't efficient though, because there isn't enough information (tho your comment and the GP are helping increase that). It may very well be that there are worse deals at some points.

Believe me, I know how inefficient the market is. There are certainly overpriced and underpriced startups. But his claim requires more than an inefficient market. He's saying that startups in a certain phase are consistently overpriced. That I've seen no evidence of.