Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 69 posts

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#51

Post by matte_black »

karimdag wrote: post #41
matte_black wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(11) Ambition is the enemy of consistency beware

Why ?

Because to do something consistently over a long period of time requires letting go of opportunities that most ambitious people cannot resist.

This fellow is running a successful business with investors backing it, and yet rather than stay to make it bigger and better he’s ready to throw it all away based off a couple passing conversations he had with some customers. There may have been a time where he felt just as strongly about this business as he does for his new idea.

If his new venture doesn’t take off he’ll be another one of the ambitious failures that litter Silicon Valley looking for the “next opportunity”.

If it does take off, there is still no guarantee he won’t jump ship to some new idea later, especially now that he has done it successfully at least once.

If he stays at his company, he can consistently work to improve it everyday, until it becomes something that can’t be built overnight by some entrepreneur flying by the seat of his pants.

The choice is his.

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#52

Post by jacquesm »

karimdag wrote: post #30
jacquesm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a plan has 'but it worked for Elon Musk' as one of the important underpinnings that will almost certainly work against you. (Unless, of course, if you're Elon Musk.)

How so ?

The whole reason his name is mentioned here is because is somewhat exceptional.

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#53

Post by matte_black »

nl wrote: post #45
harshaw wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the misfortune to work with a CEO who not only started a second company but used the VC's from his first company to start the second. His first was in a similar state (making money, but not out of the woods). didn't end well for either startup A or B. Focus is critical, unless you are Jack Dorsey I guess.

> unless you are Jack Dorsey I guess Well Twitter can't ship product, and many people within Twitter blame @jack. See for eg that article about the woman who setup their original abuse proceedures. Plenty of quotes in that which show how he stops anything getting fixed. Maybe Musk might be a better example.

Musk is not a good example. Tesla is in flames and there is worry it could affect SpaceX which is the more important company. The Boring Company also seems like a pivotal waste.

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#54

Post by foundersdilemma »

jacquesm wrote: post #2

(1) the grass is always greener on the other side (2) serial entrepreneurs are more common than parallel ones (3) don't you have a performance requirement with your investors? (4) does your shareholder agreement allow any of this? (5) have you talked this over with your investors? (6) it all depends on the cap table (7) you could always sell your stake in the current company or engineer an MBO (8) doing another compa…

Thanks for the feedback, I'll answer this by providing some more context.

a) I've done well when you consider revenue/global brand reach/spread

b) I've spoken informally to trusted board members nobody seems to have clarity on the best way forward

c) Option 7 seems to be the best way out

d) on point number 9, yes I'm distracted, but I've understated how much thought has gone into the second idea; it's something that's constantly come up when I'm with my customers with whom I have a remarkably intimate relationship with. I live for them and this one issue keeps coming up. I have toyed with the idea of getting someone else to build it, but it requires some industry good will, customers willing to pilot it etc and so far that rests with me. I meet with my customers on a fairly frequent basis to figure out where their general pain points are, what their industry vertical trends are and what other issues I can solve for them (typically this involves an introduction to one industry vendor/company or another). In the course of these conversations you can unearth a lot.

To use a theoretical example. I will use Square. If in the the process of meetings with customers in say retail figures out that nobody has built for purposes of this conversation a CRM that addresses their needs and it's a pain point that keeps coming up in every single conversation with retail customers what would you do? Over several conversations you have industry members nagging you for a solution because over time you have become their trusted advisor.

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#55

Post by foundersdilemma »

ericabiz wrote: post #43

> I have verbal validation "if you do x, we will partner with you" As the CEO of a funded company, you should know that the "we will partner with you" line is handwavy BS 99.9% of the time. This statement is not a measure of potential money coming in the door. Rather, it's usually code for "we would like you to pay us to build your website/social presence" (if said by an agency owner) or "we would like to do some sor…

I commented above that I greatly understated this. I've been explicitly asked to build it with fiscal commitment should I choose to say yes.

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#56

Post by foundersdilemma »

wbharding wrote: post #23

After 10 years being CEO for online marketplace, I found us in the position where our profits from the existing business (which support a team of 50) were not best allocated to the product we spent the last 10 years building. After reading Warren Buffetts “The Snowball,” I became convinced that we were best off channeling our profit into the highest ROI opps, regardless of whether they were directly relevant to our m…

Thank you.

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#57

Post by vorticalbox »

matte_black wrote: post #53
nl wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you are Jack Dorsey I guess Well Twitter can't ship product, and many people within Twitter blame @jack. See for eg that article about the woman who setup their original abuse proceedures. Plenty of quotes in that which show how he stops anything getting fixed. Maybe Musk might be a better example.

Musk is not a good example. Tesla is in flames and there is worry it could affect SpaceX which is the more important company. The Boring Company also seems like a pivotal waste.

The Boring Company went from digging tunnels for under ground roads for lorries to flame throwers.

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#58

Post by jacquesm »

foundersdilemma wrote: post #54
jacquesm wrote: post #2

(1) the grass is always greener on the other side (2) serial entrepreneurs are more common than parallel ones (3) don't you have a performance requirement with your investors? (4) does your shareholder agreement allow any of this? (5) have you talked this over with your investors? (6) it all depends on the cap table (7) you could always sell your stake in the current company or engineer an MBO (8) doing another compa…

Thanks for the feedback, I'll answer this by providing some more context. a) I've done well when you consider revenue/global brand reach/spread b) I've spoken informally to trusted board members nobody seems to have clarity on the best way forward c) Option 7 seems to be the best way out d) on point number 9, yes I'm distracted, but I've understated how much thought has gone into the second idea; it's something that'…

One thing you will have to recognize is that this will happen over and over again. So you are not going to find 'The Product' because there will always be other products that you could make and chase. And new development is so much more fun than maintenance, the same goes for new companies.

In your shoes I would analyze myself first before making a decision: are you just good as a starter or are you able to go the distance? And then to recognize that most of the value creation happens early on in the life cycle of a company but most of the value capture happens later on. So if you exit early you will financially hurt yourself.

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#59

Post by foundersdilemma »

gwbas1c wrote: post #49

In my experience: I worked for a business unit where the "CEO" became distracted with pursuing other opportunities unrelated to our core business. It didn't pan out very well for him. He got canned, all of the people he brought in to chase these ideas lost their jobs, ect. One thing you didn't really describe is how long you've been in your company, and what you accomplished. Are you a founder? Were you hired as a CE…

I'm the founder, the company has done well. We are serving customers in four continents now. W

Re: Ask HN: I want to start a new company, but I'm CEO at a funded startup

#60

Post by karimdag »

matte_black wrote: post #51
karimdag wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why ?

Because to do something consistently over a long period of time requires letting go of opportunities that most ambitious people cannot resist. This fellow is running a successful business with investors backing it, and yet rather than stay to make it bigger and better he’s ready to throw it all away based off a couple passing conversations he had with some customers. There may have been a time where he felt just as s…

> Because to do something consistently over a long period of time requires letting go of opportunities that most ambitious people cannot resist.

Oh! I get it now, thanks. Also, this reminds me of a FS article I read: https://www.fs.blog/2018/03/speed-velocity/

Note: FS is an excellent blog!

Post reply on HN