Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups • Hacker News Board

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#11

Post by Jgrubb » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 1:25 PM UTC

itg wrote: post #9

"On a recent muggy evening, about 70 mostly 20-something, mostly male guests gathered in clusters on a rooftop in Chelsea for the summer’s first “Find a Cofounder” party, squinting at one another’s name tags as the sun set. Red name tags were for programmers; blue meant you were more of a business guy. The blue name tags ran out by the time Betabeat got a drink." Sounds like a gathering of Winklevii types.

You know, I actually went to a Hackers & Founders meetup back in 2009 as a wanna-be founder just trying to meet some folks and see what the NYC scene was all about.

It was a LOT of fun talking to folks about ideas and technology and all that, but I noticed the ratio of Hackers to Founders to be about 1/10, and my market presented itself thusly.

It took a little while to become a Really Useful Programmer, but I've been busy as hell all year. Thank you YC!

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#12

Post by yardie » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 1:27 PM UTC

It's a bit like being a celebrity and dealing with papparazzi. After the last bubble (and being a freshly-minted graduate) I couldn't get a job in computers and slid through the tech support back entrance. Now with lines under my eyes and a slight case of CPS I can't even bring up my profession without someone handing me a business card.

Conversation goes like this:

?: So what do you do?

me: I'm a programmer.

?: Really?! Hey, I got this great idea for site, doing warble, warble, warble, warble......

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#13

Post by yalogin » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 1:29 PM UTC

So this is a broader trend. A friend who works for GS called up the other day and tells me he is thinking about investing or setting up his own startup. I was surprised because he left tech and became a banker. Oh well.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#14

Post by diolpah » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 1:43 PM UTC

yardie wrote: post #12

It's a bit like being a celebrity and dealing with papparazzi. After the last bubble (and being a freshly-minted graduate) I couldn't get a job in computers and slid through the tech support back entrance. Now with lines under my eyes and a slight case of CPS I can't even bring up my profession without someone handing me a business card. Conversation goes like this: ?: So what do you do? me: I'm a programmer. ?: Real…

This does not reflect the experiences of any developer I know. Is this a local phenomenon? Do you live in silicon valley?

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#15

Post by jsemrau » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 1:58 PM UTC

Greed is a bad motivator to startup. A high profit margin is usually the last thing a customer wants.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#16

Post by bluekite2000 » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:20 PM UTC

itg wrote: post #9

"On a recent muggy evening, about 70 mostly 20-something, mostly male guests gathered in clusters on a rooftop in Chelsea for the summer’s first “Find a Cofounder” party, squinting at one another’s name tags as the sun set. Red name tags were for programmers; blue meant you were more of a business guy. The blue name tags ran out by the time Betabeat got a drink." Sounds like a gathering of Winklevii types.

I was there that nite. And yeah you are right. It is exactly like a gathering of Winklevii types. I have never been to a tech event where suits outnumbered the rest 9 to 1. Incredible to say the least!

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#17

Post by byrneseyeview » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:37 PM UTC

ovi256 wrote: post #4

cagenut wrote: post #3

Made me think of this video: http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6535519/hardly-working-sta... Add "the type-A squares start to get in on it" as bubble-checklist item number umpteen-dozen.

>Add "the type-A squares start to get in on it" as bubble-checklist item number umpteen-dozen. First thing that came to my mind too. When drone lambda gets on it, it's time to get out of it :) Financially speaking. As working places, tech companies are still the best places for engineers, of course. The part that best put it for me was: "she realized sometime in the middle of April that she needed to do an Internet s…

Of course it does. If a lawyer has an urge to sue someone, that's way more legitimate than an engineer's urge to do the same thing. (Just read the comments on that AaronSW thread to see how well the average engineer can interact with the US legal system.)

I don't have a technical background, so I was really, really cautious about embracing startup ideas, mostly because of how easy it would be for the business guy (i.e. me) to be a total poser.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#18

Post by ig1 » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 3:08 PM UTC

jsemrau wrote: post #15

Greed is a bad motivator to startup. A high profit margin is usually the last thing a customer wants.

You're confusing high-profit margin with high-profit.

A company can be high-profit without a high-margin (i.e Supermarkets) or it can be high-margin without high-profits (many fashion labels).

Greed is a motivator for high-profits, not necessarily high-margins.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#19

Post by caseysoftware » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 3:15 PM UTC

itg wrote: post #9

"On a recent muggy evening, about 70 mostly 20-something, mostly male guests gathered in clusters on a rooftop in Chelsea for the summer’s first “Find a Cofounder” party, squinting at one another’s name tags as the sun set. Red name tags were for programmers; blue meant you were more of a business guy. The blue name tags ran out by the time Betabeat got a drink." Sounds like a gathering of Winklevii types.

I've been to a couple of those here in Austin.

As soon as I hear the phrase "I just need a developer to build X.." I discount those guys. They don't get it.

Last fall, I lost my patience with a few and finally said something like: "so you want a developer to work for your exclusively for three months in exchange for a sliver of equity? In the meantime, you keep your job. You don't risk anything. And when he's done that's when you'll start 'selling'? Seriously?"

I'll give them credit on pushing risk to others..

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#20

Post by joshuacc » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 3:27 PM UTC

“I definitely don’t want it in the newspaper,” he said. “I’m worried that even little sign posts toward what I want to build are dangerous.”

While I understand just keeping quiet about something you think is a good idea, this combination of hype* and paranoia seems really strange to me.

* Probably only in his own mind.