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Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

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Re: Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

#61

Post by sodapopcan »

ppeetteerr wrote: post #57
sodapopcan wrote: post #19

It's insane how making a profit seems to considered "uncool" in the business world. Basecamp and particularly Jason Fried's writings (I realize this is particular article is by DHH) are super inspirational. I wish that building a solid, profitable business as opposed to being so focused on growth and finding more investors was more of the norm. I want to work at Basecamp even more now, haha.

Not sure which business world you're referring to. The only place where it may be uncool is in the heady realm of start up culture. Most other business only survive by being in the black.

Yeah, I'm talking about start-ups whose focus is getting and staying in the black (profits) as opposed to putting all the focus on growth and getting more and more VC. And as I mention below, I'm not ragging on the latter, just wish the former was more prevalent as that is the atmosphere I, as a developer, personally prefer.

Re: Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

#62

Post by sodapopcan »

ppeetteerr wrote: post #57
sodapopcan wrote: post #19

It's insane how making a profit seems to considered "uncool" in the business world. Basecamp and particularly Jason Fried's writings (I realize this is particular article is by DHH) are super inspirational. I wish that building a solid, profitable business as opposed to being so focused on growth and finding more investors was more of the norm. I want to work at Basecamp even more now, haha.

Not sure which business world you're referring to. The only place where it may be uncool is in the heady realm of start up culture. Most other business only survive by being in the black.

Ok, I guess I was kinda ragging on the latter but I shouldn't have, haha!

Re: Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

#63

Post by sodapopcan »

manigandham wrote: post #56
sodapopcan wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just mean it seems to be the path-more-taken. I'm basing it on my limited experience and my reading about running a business (which a did a bunch of but certainly never did an in depth study). A lot of companies I look at while looking for employment either want to sell or trying to grow to a mammoth size. Don't get me wrong--there is nothing wrong with that! It's just that I personally prefer to take the paycut an…

Its definitely not. VC funded startups are 0.1% of the global businesses out there. For every VC company there are 100k small businesses working on being productive and profitable.

I'm talking profit focused vs growth focused. Guess that wasn't very clear. Obviously making a profit is somewhere on 100% of every company's agenda.

Re: Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

#64

Post by PopsiclePete »

GuiA wrote: post #60
combatentropy wrote: post #41

I would love to work at a company like Basecamp. Are there any other companies like them? - Less is more. Jason Fried is such a minimalist, https://www.inc.com/magazine/20091101/the-way-i-work-jason-f... - Few formal meetings. - No full-time managers. - In fact, just about everything in their books Getting Real, https://basecamp.com/books/getting-real , and Rework. They do things that I've always felt are right but c…

Why join? Start your own, run it like you want it to be run, and not only will you have the reward of working at a healthy place, you'll also have the reward of enabling dozens of employees to live fulfilling lives. I like to think that Jason Fried/DHH went to the bother of writing all these books and blog posts because they legitimately want to see more businesses run like theirs in the world.

>Why join? Start your own, run it like you want it to be run

Man, seriously, not everyone can, or even should, run a company. I like to write code, I don't like to run a business.

That is such a silly, extremely silly thing to suggest.

Work at Google? Why? Start your own Google! For realz?

Re: Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

#65

Post by tinymollusk »

itchyouch wrote: post #59
tinymollusk wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is because the portfolio strategy (1 hypergrowth + 20 failures) is the best strategy from the VC perspective. It's nearly impossible to know which startups will succeed (high uncertainty decision making), and very difficult to know how big the successful ones could be (open ended results). If it were simply as easy as building 17 solid startups to just 4 failures, I'm sure there would be more investment in that…

They also want that billion dollar startup. Having 20x small, profitable companies netting say 1-5M/year isn't their modus operandi.

A good and true point. How invalid do you think this counterargument is?

If anyone could identify early-stage companies with a 75-100% chance of being profitable, wouldn't we see an investor niche that supports this?

(I can think of one counter-counter argument: the hype created by VCs is so big that the investor and founder markets are acting irrationally.)

Would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this.

Re: Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

#66

Post by s73ver_ »

GuiA wrote: post #60
combatentropy wrote: post #41

I would love to work at a company like Basecamp. Are there any other companies like them? - Less is more. Jason Fried is such a minimalist, https://www.inc.com/magazine/20091101/the-way-i-work-jason-f... - Few formal meetings. - No full-time managers. - In fact, just about everything in their books Getting Real, https://basecamp.com/books/getting-real , and Rework. They do things that I've always felt are right but c…

Why join? Start your own, run it like you want it to be run, and not only will you have the reward of working at a healthy place, you'll also have the reward of enabling dozens of employees to live fulfilling lives. I like to think that Jason Fried/DHH went to the bother of writing all these books and blog posts because they legitimately want to see more businesses run like theirs in the world.

Because, to be perfectly honest, most of us don't want to start our own companies. I know for me, personally, that there's a whole lot of extra stuff that comes with running a company, stuff that I have absolutely zero interest in doing, that I would be required to do if I wanted my company to succeed. Second, I also don't really have any good ideas for what the company would do.

Re: Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

#68

Post by s73ver_ »

Nadya wrote: post #55
amflare wrote: post #3

Even if you don't read the article, you should read this story[0] that it links to. Which explains the mindset behind the decision. It's only like 200 words. [0]: http://renewablewealth.com/the-parable-of-the-mexican-fisher...

Same story with an alternate ending [0]. It's a more realistic story for a capitalist society. [0] http://jameszol.com/stories/infamous-fisherman-parable-now-w...

And this, dear reader, is why nobody likes MBAs. They ruin everything they touch.

Re: Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

#69

Post by laythea »

s73ver_ wrote: post #66
GuiA wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why join? Start your own, run it like you want it to be run, and not only will you have the reward of working at a healthy place, you'll also have the reward of enabling dozens of employees to live fulfilling lives. I like to think that Jason Fried/DHH went to the bother of writing all these books and blog posts because they legitimately want to see more businesses run like theirs in the world.

Because, to be perfectly honest, most of us don't want to start our own companies. I know for me, personally, that there's a whole lot of extra stuff that comes with running a company, stuff that I have absolutely zero interest in doing, that I would be required to do if I wanted my company to succeed. Second, I also don't really have any good ideas for what the company would do.

Surely if you had a good idea for a company, the currently zero interest stuff would suddenly become a bit more interesting. Then it would seem that this is more about the lack of any good ideas than the actual starting of a company.

Re: Things are going so well we’re doing a hiring freeze

#70

Post by s73ver_ »

tinymollusk wrote: post #65
itchyouch wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also want that billion dollar startup. Having 20x small, profitable companies netting say 1-5M/year isn't their modus operandi.

A good and true point. How invalid do you think this counterargument is? If anyone could identify early-stage companies with a 75-100% chance of being profitable, wouldn't we see an investor niche that supports this? (I can think of one counter-counter argument: the hype created by VCs is so big that the investor and founder markets are acting irrationally.) Would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this.

"If anyone could identify early-stage companies with a 75-100% chance of being profitable, wouldn't we see an investor niche that supports this?"

We can't do that for the current style of VC investing. Why would we need to do it for a more modest form?

The other bonus is that profitable startups usually need less VC money. So given the same amount of funds, VCs could spread their investments out over even more companies.

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