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Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

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Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#21

Post by OzzyB »

diolpah wrote: post #14
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?

I would venture to say that this is indeed very common. It's the same for web-design, graphic design and pretty much every creative industry out there. And now that "apps" are the mainstream buzzword, programmers are seeing it too.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#23

Post by aaronblohowiak »

diolpah wrote: post #14
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?

This is super common in sf bay. SV is a marketing / media term.. Most of the locals say "the bay", FYI

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#24

Post by yardie »

diolpah wrote: post #14
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?

It's probably regional. Any place that has a high flux of MBAs; in my case NYC, Miami, London, Paris. Usually its a copy of an already successful model or a mashup of 2 already successful models.

Recently, someone asked me about my thoughts on a location based photosharing service (twitter meets flickr). I was honestly interested in it then a few weeks later Instagram came out. Most of the time I either get the ideas that are completely infeasible or too pedestrian.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#25

Post by daveambrose »

Jgrubb wrote: post #11
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 bee…

Thanks for coming! It's been great meeting all of you over the last two years at H&F.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#26

Post by niketdesai »

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 right here. Every person that sees the money flowing and focuses on that will lose out on actually making something people want.

It's easy to look at a startup space and see which companies get it, and which are there because the probability of success (due to focus on that particular market from acquirers and VCs, market size, etc.)

This article is kind of scary because people are taking the approach that entrepreneurship is something that everyone can do. I think everyone can try (and would advocate for it) but this type of attitude normally precedes many failures.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#27

Post by gyardley »

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…

I wouldn't lump Cheryl Yeoh (the person you're quoting) in with 'drone lambda' or 'type-A square'. She's very driven, and has made a hell of a lot more progress with CityPockets than I would've expected.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#28

Post by davidwparker »

diolpah wrote: post #14
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?

It's the same scenario in Boulder, CO. There is at least a 5-1 ratio of business-types to programmers.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#29

Post by zamfi »

Can't find a quote right now, but this reminds me of what folks were saying about the real estate bubble: when your lawyer/doctor/grandma starts telling you about the next big thing, you know the bubble is close to popping.

That said, I'm not sure if the bubble is about to pop, or if we're just witnessing the beginning of a shift back to smaller companies and entrepreneurship.

Re: Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups

#30

Post by DrewG »

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.

When the VC start to take them seriously and give them money is when we really have a problem. If they are just trying, and not succeding, to get in on it is fine, I think.
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