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Au Revoir

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Re: Au Revoir

#241

Post by PeterisP »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #212
mbesto wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any reasonably smart CEO Sorry but this is extremely naive and I'm sorry that your naïveté has caused you conclude things which are simply not true. This is a very strong assumption, and a lie that is peddled by the media (Zuck is the greatest example of this) to create a novel story. I'm not saying it's impossible, it's just a dangerous assumption. For the record, I've interviewed over 75 software founders (CEO/CT…

Based on what? All of you here saying "they don't have what it takes" have yet to elicit one actual skill that a founder could not _learn_ as the company grows. There is nothing inherently special about someone who runs a small vs. big company, except for experience. I agree with the poster above: classism at its finest.

First, it's not about whether they could learn the skill but about whether they will learn it.

Second, if they do learn that skillset as the company grows, then they would be a great man/woman for that job.... at their next company. For this company, you'd want someone who has it right now, not someone who'll learn it halfway, from costly mistakes.

Re: Au Revoir

#242

Post by PeterisP »

zupreme wrote: post #129
hartator wrote: post #23

It always amazes me how you can convince a founder/CEO is not right man for the job, and slowly push him away. Companies that succeed are driven by burning vision, not by day-to-day operation people. It might make feel the companies run smoother for some time, but day-to-day executives are harmful to a company core vision leading to boring companies if they manage to sustain profitability in the long run at all.

I disagree. This is EXACTLY why roles such as "Chief Operating Officer" and "Director of Operations" exist. You don't make your company succeed by giving up control. You hire people you do control who have the skills you lack.

That's exactly what is being done - the founder stays on the board as a shareholder and controls the decisions on overall direction, goals and the vision of the company, and hires an executive that has the skills required for management of a large company and will execute these goals.

Re: Au Revoir

#243

Post by mbesto »

monocasa wrote: post #193
mbesto wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any reasonably smart CEO Sorry but this is extremely naive and I'm sorry that your naïveté has caused you conclude things which are simply not true. This is a very strong assumption, and a lie that is peddled by the media (Zuck is the greatest example of this) to create a novel story. I'm not saying it's impossible, it's just a dangerous assumption. For the record, I've interviewed over 75 software founders (CEO/CT…

And likewise, I can tell you from experience that nowhere near even 50% of the people brought in that supposedly have the ability to scale a company don't really know anything other than just enough pattern matching to cosplay as Jack Welch in front of investors, and how to minimize their blame when shit hits the fan.

> I can tell you from experience that nowhere near even 50%

I know way more people whose money is on the line that will gladly take that bet.

Re: Au Revoir

#244

Post by jjoe »

arghwhat wrote: post #234
jjoe wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure resource scaling is what's needed here. Just good ol' caching. Shameless plug: I built Cachoid[0] for caching as a service (leveraging Varnish mainly) to help with situations like this. [0] https://www.cachoid.com/

Maybe state that it is a Varnish configurator. I initially thought it was a new caching proxy, thinking "Why would anyone need that when they have Varnish?". Also, adding caches is still resource scaling.

Edited to mention Varnish.

Also, adding caches is still resource scaling.

This is a semantically correct. Caching can indeed cut down on resource usage. It isn't always a scale-up operation.

Re: Au Revoir

#246

Post by sah2ed »

discussedbefore wrote: post #55
c_r_w wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that mean, "marketing-first approach?" Is this a common distinction in the Hacker News culture?

If I had to pick a more common phrase to research on HN, it would be "growth hacking". By marketing-first I mean growth hacking/PR is priority #1. I'm not saying anything against this person professionally or personally, it is more a textbook example of marketing hustle as key to financial success. I prioritize technology ahead of marketing, and am currently struggling to flip this around. PS. I didn't know Docker wa…

> I prioritize technology ahead of marketing, and am currently struggling to flip this around.

May I ask why you feel strongly about a technology-first approach?

I can think of someone that tried your exact approach, but it didn't end well. He happens to be a member of this community [0] and he wrote a great blog post [1] introspecting as to the reasons why technology-first approaches don't work in the world we live in.

If you've not read it, I encourage you to do so.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=coffeemug

[1] http://www.defmacro.org/2017/01/18/why-rethinkdb-failed.html

Re: Au Revoir

#247

Post by mcguire »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #104
romanhn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reason why most startups don't go big - burning vision is not even close to being the right formula for success. Running a company of 10 people is VERY different from running a company of 100, which is VERY VERY different from running a company of 1000. Just like precious few individual contributors are comfortable with and able to contribute meaningfully in this wide range of environments, it doesn't make…

> Running a company of 10 people is VERY different from running a company of 100, which is VERY VERY different from running a company of 1000 IMO thats a classist lie that keeps people in their place. Any reasonably smart CEO can learn his way from 10 - 10000. Yes, (s)he may not be capable of 10k on day one, but they can grow along the way.

History seems to disagree. Growth has killed many companies.

Re: Au Revoir

#248

Post by matt12345678 »

Wow. These kinds of communications typically seem trite. But this one genuinely resonated with me. I'm glad things worked out for him. And thanks for Docker!
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