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I Don't Want to Be a Founder

carolchen.me

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Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#51

Post by topkai22 »

jarsbe wrote: post #14

Why is it that starting a tech start up is seen as an uber difficult task often resulting in burnout while starting a business in a technical occupation such as electrical or refrigeration is (seemingly) less risque? Surely there are a plenty of opportunities where rather boring software can be applied to business problems. Does it always need to be a monumental technical accomplishment to create a success?

The author has agreed elsewhere in this thread that he’s basically writing about taking VC money.

That being said, the advice applies elsewhere. My dad was a physician in US military and then decided to open up a private practice. He spent decades running a business where he was the sole source of revenue, and as far as I can tell hated dealing with any aspect of it that wasn’t direct patient care. He eventually joined a larger physician group and was much happier in his job.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#52

Post by unishark »

aabhay wrote: post #32

This article has such a strong mental bias towards the Bay Area worldview. It assumes so deeply that the two types of people in the world are VC-backed startup founders and engineers at top tier tech companies. This is so completely off. Many people (including me) decided to start bootstrapped companies that are profitable on day 1 (or soon thereafter), with richly rewarding work. Many folks literally can’t get a job…

"Startup" is not really synonymous with "small business". It may not be a universal view but it does seem really common nowadays for the word "startup" to imply attempts at fast-growing, VC-funded new companies.

Also while most people don't work at the big-name sexy tech companies, I think the author's point was about what people should aspire to as the pinnacle of a career. Not what people commonly settle for.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#53

Post by heipei »

amzans wrote: post #47
Mave83 wrote: post #39

I successful founded startups since 20 years, starting in the age of 16. In none of them, I founded together with partners that I realy trusted like I trust my wife. However we worked together on a professional level and figured it out everytime. Why could we do that? because in the end it is a work for roughly 5y and if you stop even thinking about working 24x7x365 you have enough free time for recreational activiti…

Thanks for the inspiring story. I’m guessing that the 25K€ probably referrers to a GmbH in Germany :) If so, would you say the GmbH/UG (Limited Liability Company) route is a good idea from the start for a solo founder of a bootstrapped SaaS? I’ve been doing my research and maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like it has quite a lot of overhead for a first time solo founder like myself. To clarify, I’m an expat in Germany,…

You can start out with an Einzelunternehmen (Sole Proprietorship) which means your personal finances and your "companies" finances are the same, but it's very little hassle and cost to set up, basically an online form and a few Euro. Then, when you want to grow your business, limit your financial liability, take in outside money or just better control the flow of capital you can set up a GmbH (don't bother with an UG if you have the €25k at hand). Bonus points if you think it likely that you'll sell your business you can set up two GmbHs in a Holding structure which has big tax benefits in the event of a sale. You still only need the €25k once in that case.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#54

Post by roboy »

amzans wrote: post #47
Mave83 wrote: post #39

I successful founded startups since 20 years, starting in the age of 16. In none of them, I founded together with partners that I realy trusted like I trust my wife. However we worked together on a professional level and figured it out everytime. Why could we do that? because in the end it is a work for roughly 5y and if you stop even thinking about working 24x7x365 you have enough free time for recreational activiti…

Thanks for the inspiring story. I’m guessing that the 25K€ probably referrers to a GmbH in Germany :) If so, would you say the GmbH/UG (Limited Liability Company) route is a good idea from the start for a solo founder of a bootstrapped SaaS? I’ve been doing my research and maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like it has quite a lot of overhead for a first time solo founder like myself. To clarify, I’m an expat in Germany,…

GmbH gives you limited liability, that's its main purpose, to encapsulate risks and create a body on its own. You can just as well just register as a freelancer if there's no significant risk of going into debt suddenly or being sued. The overhead is not that big though, you have to submit tax returns, do proper accounting and you might want a tax consultant for this - that removes most of the headache, and costs you 3k€ a year. The pains start with employees, but I've also outsourced that to an HR company, costs me 30€ per employee per month - removes most of those pains too. Often tax consultants do that too. Bigger pains start at 10 employees, but by then ure hopefully large enough to have a few experienced people around you to take care of those :) All in all, I've found Germany to be less painfull than expected.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#55

Post by topkai22 »

conceptnotion wrote: post #11

I think what most of us want is to be free of the tyranny of employment. And I don’t think founding a company is best way to mitigate that if you aren’t completely into it, you could just go become a freelancer or start a small services Center in your locality.

I don’t get “the tyranny of employment”. I’ve had bad jobs before, but within a couple of months I got a new one- in my case always within the same company. My peers in tech have had incredibly dynamic careers as W2 employees.

I’ve toyed with starting a company a few times, but it’s primarily been because there is problem I want to solve that no existing organization I know of is likely to solve it own their own.

I suspect what I really want is a professorship and tenure, but I’d probably be more likely to succeed at creating and exiting a startup successfully at this point.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#57

Post by EchoAce »

kipply wrote: post #45
aabhay wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm okay, thanks for acknowledging! I guess the reason I had strong words for this was that the mental bias I observed is actually extremely pervasive among people here in the bay. In fact the first question I get about my firm is whether/how much I raised.

I'm afraid of Bay-Area-view-of-the-world-being-inaccurate sorta things, was kind of sad to see it in myself (though my scope was narrowed partially because my only experience was choosing between industry vs startup)

Please don’t feel like this article wasn’t useful to some people though even with bias; as a new entrant to the industry I liked reading it!

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#58

Post by thinkingkong »

unishark wrote: post #52
aabhay wrote: post #32

This article has such a strong mental bias towards the Bay Area worldview. It assumes so deeply that the two types of people in the world are VC-backed startup founders and engineers at top tier tech companies. This is so completely off. Many people (including me) decided to start bootstrapped companies that are profitable on day 1 (or soon thereafter), with richly rewarding work. Many folks literally can’t get a job…

"Startup" is not really synonymous with "small business". It may not be a universal view but it does seem really common nowadays for the word "startup" to imply attempts at fast-growing, VC-funded new companies. Also while most people don't work at the big-name sexy tech companies, I think the author's point was about what people should aspire to as the pinnacle of a career. Not what people commonly settle for.

Do you have any self awareness of how awful that sounds?

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#59

Post by wutbrodo »

mettamage wrote: post #18
irjustin wrote: post #4

Dave McClure had a pretty aggressive talk about why not to do a startup[0] back in 2012 and it resonates with what's written here. Startups are hard and we love to parade those who made it, struck it rich, but the reality is the vast majority don't. It also requires a skillset/discipline/constitution that is very different than what most people want to do. In the very large group who don't make it, lies burnt relatio…

IMO, damned if you do damned if you don’t. Before covid it took me 12 months to find a job. I applied to 100 companies. Ironically, got a job during covid and the job is pretty relaxing compared to the job hunt. During the hunt I thought: society is kinda forcing my hand here. Also: a lot of knowledge workers have to work a lot of hours and keep on learning (e.g. doctors or programmers). To me, it feels much more lik…

> To me, it feels much more like a pick your poison type of thing.

The way out is consistently living way under your means (if possible). If you don't live in poverty, this is likely possible in the general case; just pretend you make XX% less aftertax and voila, you have an %XX savings rate. There are non-monetary costs to doing this, but there are also benefits, and the freedom is really hard to beat.

...though I've heard that that doesn't apply to having a family. I don't know exactly this wouldn't generalize to having a family, but I don't currently have dependents, so this blind spot is likely the reason. The main thing I can think of is how expensive schooling is (via or not via housing prices), and the understandable desire to max out the quality of your kids' schooling (my mom took a super-shitty job as a teacher to get my sister and I free private school tuitions, with a bitch of a commute, until we were old enough to get scholarships).

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#60

Post by rorykoehler »

heipei wrote: post #53
amzans wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the inspiring story. I’m guessing that the 25K€ probably referrers to a GmbH in Germany :) If so, would you say the GmbH/UG (Limited Liability Company) route is a good idea from the start for a solo founder of a bootstrapped SaaS? I’ve been doing my research and maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like it has quite a lot of overhead for a first time solo founder like myself. To clarify, I’m an expat in Germany,…

You can start out with an Einzelunternehmen (Sole Proprietorship) which means your personal finances and your "companies" finances are the same, but it's very little hassle and cost to set up, basically an online form and a few Euro. Then, when you want to grow your business, limit your financial liability, take in outside money or just better control the flow of capital you can set up a GmbH (don't bother with an UG…

Do not do an Einzelunternehmen to start. Do a UG. Not worth exposing yourself to the unforgiving and extremely aggressive Finanzamt when they decide they want to collect money you didn't expect to owe.
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