21–24 of 24 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Where did you get this idea? You are absolutely not going to harm your career by having a key role at a startup that dies. Dying is what startups do. Most startups are doomed. Moreover, if you're not the founder or CEO of a startup that dies, nobody is going to attribute anything --- success or failure --- to you, unless you actively campaign to make the attribution happen. This is bad advice. You should stop giving…
One of the best startup posts I've read yet - big kudos to @yegg, he's the man. Thinking that you're going to win by just playing one or two hands is dumb. I also don't like the view that entrepreneurs do it because their personality naturally gravitates towards risk, that's just not smart business. Only way to win is to take advantage of high EV moments in life, but to also maintain a long-term view and mitigate ris…
One of the best startup posts I've read yet - big kudos to @yegg, he's the man. Thinking that you're going to win by just playing one or two hands is dumb. I also don't like the view that entrepreneurs do it because their personality naturally gravitates towards risk, that's just not smart business. Only way to win is to take advantage of high EV moments in life, but to also maintain a long-term view and mitigate ris…
Using investment as an analogy, this is like a barbell strategy. Put most of your portfolio into bonds and put 10% into pure speculation like out-of-the money options.
Be ready to seize opportune times, but never risk disaster. The world's greatest entrepreneurs and investors didn't get to where they are today with diversification strategies.
They did it by concentrating the bets they made in life.
Strongly recommend, if you're interested in startups as a career, that you add "taking a job at a startup and working your way up to a key role" to your to-do list. I know a couple people who have tried to make startups their career by serially founding go-nowhere companies; that's the wrong way to do it. (My rule of thumb, which I've back-rationalized onto my career, is not to start back-to-back companies).
I totally agree. The reason this is so important is it makes it possible for you to see the ways companies fail without bearing the burden yourself. (Because, odds are, the startups you join will fail.) It also shows you that there is more than one path to success. I've worked for several startups and each one taught me a different way of thinking about what are the important things to focus on, what kind of people t…
It wasn't until my fourth start-up job that I found one that I loved and stuck with for more than 1.5 years. Luckily, that one worked out and I was rewarded for it. Not as a founder, but as the GP recommended: work at it and find a key role. Work up from there and get your efforts recognized.
You won't make millions this way but you will learn a lot about business--mainly, how to recognize the good and bad things in your environment, and how to navigate those issues. You also don't have to risk your savings or livelihood. Unless you have a clear or novel idea about what you want (which I didn't), it is a great learning environment.
One thing that I have always known is that I'm not a natural business-type person. After having the safety blanket of learning through 6 years of funded start-ups, rather than on my own dime (and thinking I could do it myself "because it's so easy"), it really helped my long-term prospects of running my own business. One day I will but not yet.