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

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

#191

Post by cachemiss »

humanrebar wrote: post #185
cachemiss wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of them I'd wager. Issue is, and it was for me, is that moving out of an area where I can walk down the street and get another great job to an area where the only great job is the one that this hypothetical company is offering just wasn't worth the risk. I have a wife and kids, and so do most specialized senior engineers.

> I have a wife and kids... Sure, so minimal commute times and affordability of family homes in areas with good schools should be very appealing to many of the specialized senior engineers. Moving the family is a pain, sure, but that just means the pitch needs to include why it's worth it for the family. And it means that senior engineers move cities less often. It doesn't mean they move less altogether. Idle thought…

Honestly, if someone could mitigate the risk for this sort of thing, it's a huge deal.

Personally, I hate living in the tech hubs, I'd love to be able to move back to my hometown, it was a great place to raise kids, didn't have the same crushing traffic / monoculture and it was close to my family. I'm where I'm at due to the jobs, nothing else.

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

#192

Post by nrhk »

autotune wrote: post #20
brndnmtthws wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really depends on the kind of lifestyle you choose. If you want to live alone in a fancy apartment, drive a new car, and eat out every day, then you certainly won't be able to save as much. If you practice frugality, find cheap housing (which does exist if you look hard enough), and don't spend money on things you don't need, then it's quite easy to save a lot of money.

> 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.

Alternatively, room with 7 other people, stomach the train, walking, biking, only cook or eat soylent and never go out or spend any money on luxuries of any kind.

Then yea you can make it work...just no fun.

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

#193

Post by aswanson »

cachemiss wrote: post #163
rpeden wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 rea…

I am deeply concerned now that my random comment might end up as a VC funded startup.

Worse, if it did and ended up being a Unicorn.

Even if it doesn't, it's HBO Silicon Valley worthy.

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

#194

Post by aswanson »

rpeden wrote: post #189
cachemiss wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am deeply concerned now that my random comment might end up as a VC funded startup.

It looks like Uber already gave it a try :) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/uber-kittens-1.3292441

Maybe he can come up with a better pivot of it.

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

#195

Post by CalChris »

There is a fourth path. Levi Strauss.

Don't get me wrong. The gold miners needed jeans and supplies. But Levi Strauss lived off them and not the reverse. So the fourth path is service providers: lawyers, accelerators, accountants, contractors, ..., even VCs to a degree. I think Silicon Valley has a competitive advantage in having the best but it is a different path. And as much experience as they have when I talk to them, they haven't done it themselves.

Well, most haven't. Ben Horowitz knows. Some know but most don't. That doesn't keep them from doing an awesome job. It's just a different path.

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

#196

Post by MatthewMcDonald »

spamizbad wrote: post #144
humanrebar wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I share you bullishness about "untapped" cities, but: > ...starting a company in an area that does not need the top tier of engineers... As far as quality of talent, the "top tier of engineers" aren't all in SF, Seattle, or NYC. There are plenty of "top tier" engineers in all kinds of places. If you mean the "top tier" in pay rates are in those cities, that probably true. But those cities also have a ridiculous cost…

Also: Even though there are many top-tier engineers in those hotspots, just how gettable are they if you're hiring in SV/Seattle/NYC? Based on my purely anecdotal experience, engineers that would be easy no-hires in Chicago get scooped up into senior roles in the valley because everyone there is so desperate to hire anyone who can fizzbuzz. It's the best area to be in if you're one of the best... and also if you're o…

> Top-flight talent exists but they're all "Unobtanium" for anything that isn't a unicorn, IPO'd, or founded by one of their friends

I disagree; top talent is very obtainable, provided that you have:

* decent compensation

* great culture

* interesting problems to solve

* a great hiring process

We've grown our engineering team from 12 to 29 since opening up shop in Kansas City this February, and I could not be happier with the quality of people that we've found.

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

#197

Post by luckydata »

foundart wrote: post #186
humanrebar wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I share you bullishness about "untapped" cities, but: > ...starting a company in an area that does not need the top tier of engineers... As far as quality of talent, the "top tier of engineers" aren't all in SF, Seattle, or NYC. There are plenty of "top tier" engineers in all kinds of places. If you mean the "top tier" in pay rates are in those cities, that probably true. But those cities also have a ridiculous cost…

It's easier to take a risk on a startup in a tech hub because you can likely find a job elsewhere if things don't work out. In a non-hub area, it's riskier to take the leap because fallback options are much more limited.

In my limited experience outside of one of those hubs I can say that's definitely a factor. I've spoken to a few good candidates that when decision time came got cold feet because of fear that the local ecosystem not being strong enough to provide a security cushion in case something went poorly.

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

#198

Post by pedrosorio »

mmm94720 wrote: post #34
hellbreaker wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep on hearing about that.. so what's savings rate people should expect in SF?

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…

> Taxes 40% (30% fed, 10% state) 100K

Those sound like marginal rates, not actual taxes paid.

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

#199

Post by leeoniya »

csomar wrote: post #170
leeoniya wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not really. my family moved to the states from moscow when i was 7. we spent all our money that we got from selling a crappy apt on the move itself. we lived on food stamps, had to learn english, my parents (both with technical university degrees) went to community college and worked low wage jobs to pay the rent, bills and tuition. we had a super old used ford that was rusting everywhere a vehicle can rust and the d…

I'm afraid of survivorship bias. Just because you made it, it doesn't mean that others who fell in the same situation would. That's where statistics come handy. Don't forget that you have lived through a period of growth in the US. It might not happen again for this generation. What if the fundamentals changes, and the situations/opportunities you have been through are no longer there? We like to think we make our ch…

there are still incredible opportunities. you just have to be educated (STEM helps by an immeasurable factor), work hard and take risks to land them. luck helps. sometimes luck comes easy; sometimes you have to make your own luck. anyone who thinks there is less opportunity in the US today than 20 years ago is willfully ignorant and/or has never lived in countries that truly have no opportunity for upward mobility besides unicorn luck, marrying up or capitalizing on some level of corruption.

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

#200

Post by edoceo »

mahyarm wrote: post #66
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…

80k* %50 = 40k vs. 160k * %35 = 56k Bay area in a nutshell. You can have higher savings rates too, I do around %40 and I could save even more. Working at a startup does make it harder, usually it's better to work at FANG. You also learn a lot and realize the difference between 'facebook does this dev practice because it's huge so it has to vs. it's the better practice'

FANG?
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