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Post YC Depression

bmaho.com

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Re: Post YC Depression

#131

Post by smacktoward »

quelsolaar wrote: post #64

You have to work on something you are passionate about. If you work on Sundays because you cant keep yourself away from it, then great. If you work Sundays because you think if you work hard enough you will become rich and successful, then you are likely going to burn yourself out. Your life is NOW, be happy now. Don't push it off. If coding all day makes you happy do so. but if you rather hang out at the beach do so…

Fill your bowl to the brim

and it will spill.

Keep sharpening your knife

and it will blunt.

Chase after money and security

and your heart will never unclench.

Care about people's approval

and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back.

The only path to serenity.

-- Tao Te Ching, ch. 9, Stephen Mitchell translation (http://taoteching.org.uk/index.php?c=9&a=Stephen+Mitchell)

Re: Post YC Depression

#132

Post by redm »

drenginian wrote: post #80

People seem to become really attached to the validation from YC. Getting into an incubator or getting money from investors is zero measure of business success. Business success is users and growth and revenue. Whether YC blesses you is also zero reflection on you as a person. Rejection by YC means nothing at all. I think business is about trying to make money, it’s not about YC and funding and the scene and investmen…

> Getting into an incubator or getting money from investors is zero measure of business success.

"Put your money where your mouth is"

It may not be a measure of business success, but is a validation of an idea, a team, or both. That's a strong validation IMO.

Re: Post YC Depression

#133

Post by andruby »

throwaway_tech wrote: post #115
drenginian wrote: post #80

People seem to become really attached to the validation from YC. Getting into an incubator or getting money from investors is zero measure of business success. Business success is users and growth and revenue. Whether YC blesses you is also zero reflection on you as a person. Rejection by YC means nothing at all. I think business is about trying to make money, it’s not about YC and funding and the scene and investmen…

>Getting into an incubator or getting money from investors is zero measure of business success. That is sort of like saying money doesn't buy happiness...true, but financial stress or poverty typically can be outright bars to happiness. As you say YC admission or raising funds from investors isn't a measure of business success...but then again I haven't seen a tech unicorn that hasn't been funded by investors. >Head…

> but then again I haven't seen a tech unicorn that hasn't been funded by investors

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bootstrapped-unicorns_b_64576...

It talks about Zoho, eClinicalWorks and Veeam beeing bootstrapped businesses to reach unicorn valuations

Also: Basecamp (I guess) and Valve Software

Re: Post YC Depression

#134

Post by bmaho »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #73

In the midst of the business flailing, I loved that I could at least say we were working constantly. It felt like the only "positive" metric that showed we were true "entrepreneurs." This is the wrong metric to use. It's a metric that's practically guaranteed to lead to unhealthy patterns. When I worked at Aflac, a lot of my coworkers were enthralled that they were there. It was the biggest thing that had ever happen…

Totally agree that's the wrong metric - learned that the hard way. It was just the only number I could use at the time that would make me feel like all those hours meant something.

Thanks so much for reading it and I've definitely been getting things sorted out. Best of luck to you as well!!!

Re: Post YC Depression

#135

Post by robomartin »

Years ago I wrote a series of educational iOS apps for kids:

http://www.tommyteaches.com/

After a few years of Apple --for no good reason at all-- forcing code rewrites and maintenance I could no longer justify keeping these apps on the App Store, so they are now gone.

Anyhow, the Tommy Teaches apps used a combination of spaced repetition, genetic solvers and other software witchcraft to improve the rate of learning.

I mostly developed these out of personal need, when one of my kids was having trouble with a few letters of the alphabet (I forget how old he was, very young obviously). I downloaded a few apps to try and solve the problem only to discover they really didn't know how to teach a kid anything. The simple example being that they would keep repeating letters he had absolutely no problems with and gave the trouble letters equal treatment.

Tommy Teaches worked extremely well. Our local schools asked me to develop a version for Special Needs kids, something I started to do but ultimately could not complete due to Apple making it impossible to make money to fund such development (which, I learned, is very expensive).

Just a quick note/anecdote to say spaced repetition, perhaps along with other techniques can work very well if applied to a domain that might benefit from the approach.

Re: Post YC Depression

#136

Post by sbierwagen »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #73

In the midst of the business flailing, I loved that I could at least say we were working constantly. It felt like the only "positive" metric that showed we were true "entrepreneurs." This is the wrong metric to use. It's a metric that's practically guaranteed to lead to unhealthy patterns. When I worked at Aflac, a lot of my coworkers were enthralled that they were there. It was the biggest thing that had ever happen…

Aflac? These people were excited to work at an insurance company?

Re: Post YC Depression

#137

Post by avnfish »

smacktoward wrote: post #131
quelsolaar wrote: post #64

You have to work on something you are passionate about. If you work on Sundays because you cant keep yourself away from it, then great. If you work Sundays because you think if you work hard enough you will become rich and successful, then you are likely going to burn yourself out. Your life is NOW, be happy now. Don't push it off. If coding all day makes you happy do so. but if you rather hang out at the beach do so…

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity. -- Tao Te Ching, ch. 9, Stephen Mitchell translation ( http://taoteching.org.uk/index.php?c=9&a=Stephen+Mitchell )

Thank you for this.

> Keep sharpening your knife / and it will blunt

Particularly resonated with me.

I was so frustrated to find grinding through skills and development courses after work left me burned out and, all things considered, a poorer thinker.

Re: Post YC Depression

#138

Post by wtvanhest »

drenginian wrote: post #80

People seem to become really attached to the validation from YC. Getting into an incubator or getting money from investors is zero measure of business success. Business success is users and growth and revenue. Whether YC blesses you is also zero reflection on you as a person. Rejection by YC means nothing at all. I think business is about trying to make money, it’s not about YC and funding and the scene and investmen…

Lots of comments here. This is one area where either you have tried or you haven’t and you have either succeeded or failed (to get to the next step).

I tried, (left my job, put my time and money on the line), had some small wins, but ultimately failed. Looking back, not getting in to YC was probably not a significant driver in the business not working.

That said, when you have your money and reputation on the line, validation is very valuable, and those that say it isn’t, either haven’t done it or are truly unique.

Re: Post YC Depression

#139

Post by gnicholas »

spottybanana wrote: post #92
drenginian wrote: post #80

People seem to become really attached to the validation from YC. Getting into an incubator or getting money from investors is zero measure of business success. Business success is users and growth and revenue. Whether YC blesses you is also zero reflection on you as a person. Rejection by YC means nothing at all. I think business is about trying to make money, it’s not about YC and funding and the scene and investmen…

> Business success is users and growth and revenue. To me, business success is only the profit, what my business makes after the expenses - free cash to invest or share to shareholders. Everything else can go to hell, I don't care (except when it relates to making profit). However nothing wrong if someone else has some other metrics. However I don't really understand why to pursue something else in business.

I completely agree that revenue gets too much airtime, at the expense of profit. I do think revenue can be a useful stat for startups, for example if it is a harbinger of future profit. Imagine you're spending $500k/yr on engineering to build a platform, and you're bringing in $500k/yr in revenue. In the early years, this means you have no profit. But if your product (perhaps Saas?) is one that requires much less upkeep than initial development, then you can be fairly certain that your business will become profitable once the early dev work has been completed.

Of course, you can't be naive here and forget to account for customer service, maintenance, etc., which all ramp up over time.

Re: Post YC Depression

#140

Post by zasz »

StevenWaterman wrote: post #15

This was a good article, but I want to briefly call out that `6X more likely to suffer from ADHD` is not a useful stat when trying to argue that being a founder causes health issues. ADHD is present from birth and cannot develop as the result of trauma. It's still an interesting statistic, but for a different reason. People with ADHD are more likely to become founders, as they're more driven by passion, challenge, an…

There's evidence coming out that ADHD is at least correlated childhood trauma, so it's possible trauma causes ADHD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28477799
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