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Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#71

Post by autotune »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #36
autotune wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> fancy apartment Being a 400 sq. ft. studio that you pay $3k per month for to live in an area where you won't get stabbed when you go out at night and is close enough to work where you don't need a car.

Just for comparison, I lived in SF for about 4 years. I saved a huge amount of money. I lived with 3 roommates to save money, I sold my car, you won't get stabbed anywhere in SF (so live in the sketchy area it'll get nicer each year). My rent was $1,200 a month, a lucky find. Now don't get me wrong I hated living there, no girls, homelessness everywhere smelled like garbage, and a self-obsession that pretended to be…

Roommate rant: I started out with trying the roommate situation for $1500 a month or less usually; all I ask out of roommates are that we all stick to a schedule for chores and peace and quiet at night. Every single roommate situation either had somebody who couldn't abide by the 10 PM quiet rule (we're talking watching tv at all hours of the night, having sex with their girlfriend until the AM, or having a very audible conversation next to my room at 2 AM), or refused to do any type of chores leaving it all on me or the place a stye. If I could find a mythical responsible roommate or roommates and only pay $1500 a month or less I absolutely would but it hasn't ever worked out.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#73

Post by ryandrake »

JohnDotAwesome wrote: post #53
mmm94720 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me describe a typical mid-career Silicon Valley salaried tech worker scenario. YMMV of course. Base comp 200K Bonus, stock, 401k match 50K Total gross comp 250K Expenses: Taxes 40% (30% fed, 10% state) 100K Rental housing 40K ($3300/month) Food 15K Transportation 15K Discretionary spending 20K Total expenses 190K As a result, you can comfortably save $60K per year. Of course, kids and housing options will add gre…

Is it really typical in SV tech to get that much matching on 401k and/or get a bonus? Seems extraordinarily high. Maybe that bonus, stock, 401k match is sort of an unknown that one may or may not receive (in which case, you'd be comfortably saving $10k/year). At any rate, if those bonuses are real, maybe I need to move out of Texas.

No, they are extraordinarily high. Those comp figures are what I like to call "HN normal". My theory is that HN readers/posters tend to be smarter than the average bear -> they and their peers tend to get better than usual pay -> they begin to believe these extraordinarily large comps are "normal" for tech workers. You'll actually see people here with a straight face claiming $400K is a totally usual "all-in" package at a normal tech company.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#74

Post by jklein11 »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #21
autotune wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> fancy apartment Being a 400 sq. ft. studio that you pay $3k per month for to live in an area where you won't get stabbed when you go out at night and is close enough to work where you don't need a car.

Why would you ever live in a studio if you want to save money?

Because it was the cheapest viable options.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#75

Post by rpeden »

cachemiss wrote: post #24
ryandrake wrote: post #7

> Often times there are hard barriers preventing people from starting a company. In these cases my best advice is to move to a tech hub (preferably the Bay Area) and work for a tech company until you can save the money I had to laugh there. Moving to the Bay Area will reduce your ability to save money, not increase it. I was probably saving 40-50% of my salary when I worked in Nowhereville, Florida. With the housing…

If you are bootstrapping, and you are starting a company in an area that does not need the top tier of engineers (which is most of them, regardless of how they talk about hiring the best), I'd consider starting someplace low cost. I think college towns in the midwest / rust belt are untapped resources, or areas that used to have strong technically focused companies that moved away. I've personally seen founders boots…

Just an irrelevant side note - what do envision when you think of 'Uber for cats'?

- A cat sharing service?

- A 'cat on demand' service that allows you to reap the benefits of cat ownership without having to worry about acquisition and maintenance costs?

- A taxi service for cats?

I could envision paying for all of those, under the right circumstances. So such a company would likely have at least a few dollars of real revenue. :)

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#76

Post by yesimahuman »

ryandrake wrote: post #7

> Often times there are hard barriers preventing people from starting a company. In these cases my best advice is to move to a tech hub (preferably the Bay Area) and work for a tech company until you can save the money I had to laugh there. Moving to the Bay Area will reduce your ability to save money, not increase it. I was probably saving 40-50% of my salary when I worked in Nowhereville, Florida. With the housing…

Yea the adage that you should move to the bay area to start a startup feels increasingly outdated. I couldn't have gone full time on my (now VC-backed startup) back when we were bootstrapping and living on $2k a month from early customer credit card swipes (one of the absolute best feelings in the world) if we had living costs like that in SF/bay area. Once we did find traction and raise we still didn't move. Times are changing.

Plus, doesn't pg say the most important thing is to just stay alive?

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#77

Post by mikestew »

introvertsexist wrote: post #38
NikolaeVarius wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you ever live in a studio if you want to save money?

Presumably for sanity & security & sleep. Fuck you; this attitude to rent is the worst part about the bay area. If you want to save money, please avoid the bay at all costs.

Fuck you; this attitude to rent is the worst part about the bay area.

Well, that was uncalled for. I’m willing to bet a paycheck that someone named “Nikolae” lives in a place where “studio” might have a meaning different than it does in the U. S. And so they wonder why you’d live in such an expensive place if you’re trying to save, whereas in the U. S. a studio is the bottom tier of apartment inventory.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#78

Post by bluebird01 »

metalliqaz wrote: post #5

Missing from the strategies for the first two (really all three): come from wealthy background.

seems like an overly simplistic conclusion. yes, wealth begets wealth, but to assume wealth is the only factor in outsized success in tech is a class based argument that doesn't add up.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#79

Post by Domenic_S »

dredmorbius wrote: post #35
Clubber wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contracting is good, but there is a trap. If you find yourself as a contractor and the market crashes, finding new contracts is much more difficult. At least I experienced this during the dot bomb / 911 collapse in 2001. Also, you have to pay for your health insurance, which is getting crazy expensive, and only gets more expensive as you get older. Make sure you adjust your rate accordingly. This may or may not apply…

It's possible to switch to not being a contractor. I'm also not all that certain that down markets don't hit all categories with similar force. Contractors may be cut slightly earlier (discretionary spending), but that depends on contracting terms and duration (there are set-length contracts), and as a bonus might be hired back earlier. Much depends on whether or not you have a specific skillset that's in demand, and…

> It's possible to switch to not being a contractor.

Sure, but during an economic contraction is typically not a good time!

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