What frustrates me the most as an entrepreneur • Hacker News Board

Re: What frustrates me the most as an entrepreneur

#51

Post by gte910h » Sun, Aug 07, 2011, 3:03 PM UTC

BerislavLopac wrote: post #31

thomasgerbe wrote: post #8

I wonder what life would be like if salaries were publicized in the same way as professional athletes. I've had situations where extremely intelligent and productive fellow employees left the company because they found out someone else of the same level was making a lot more than they were. And by the time they offer a raise, the employee has already emotionally moved onto other pastures. I'll admit that when I found…

A good approach is to have a well-determined, public salary policy, as described by Joel Spolsky in http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000038.html

That just seems incompatible with the necessities of hiring many particular, high value people. This is at least if it's total compensation, not just a nod to actual cash salary.

Looking at Spolsky's other posts on stock options, it isn't a complete picture I think.

(Spolsky's particular federal-type pay scale. Not public salaries at all).

Re: What frustrates me the most as an entrepreneur

#52

Post by tlianza » Sun, Aug 07, 2011, 3:39 PM UTC

blackboxxx wrote: post #40

tlianza wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you knew you didn't have the money to fairly pay for this designer's services, why ask? By this equation, a startup without a lot of VC money wouldn't have a shot at hiring anyone great - and yet a startup needs great people. Put simply, if you want to make a lot of money at minimal risk, run far away from startups. Go work at a big tech company who's a money making machine, become employee 29751, and enjoy your…

Me believing in your startup is included in my rate. So is passion. If you're going to nickel and dime my rate, both will affected.

That would suggest you have a different rate for different startups. Right? If so, I agree with you.

Re: What frustrates me the most as an entrepreneur

#53

Post by uniquejosh » Sun, Aug 07, 2011, 4:53 PM UTC

billswift wrote: post #34

uniquejosh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked what you said. Yes, I want him to focus on UX 110%, and not worry too much on the money. But, the fair rate to him is too high to us. That is the struggle. I am sure we will find a fee we are both fine with. But, I just wish that I could pay him, or anyone in the team, the rate reflecting their value. That is it. :)

Find someone that may not be quite that good, but is ambitious and still learning, then help him grow into what you need.

Yes, I think it is about the balance as well. A rising star needs to be able to product decent work already, and keen to learn more to become that super-star.

We had experience getting a young graduate, and it turned out that it took a lot of time to teach him some basic things. It did not work out at out at the end.

Re: What frustrates me the most as an entrepreneur

#54

Post by uniquejosh » Sun, Aug 07, 2011, 4:56 PM UTC

robryan wrote: post #41

I think the right thing to do here is to realise that they are outside your current means. Either pick them up for some contract work at the market rate or if they do really believe in the idea maybe they should be a cofounder.

Yes, we would like to get him couple days a week as a contractor to start-up. If we work together well, we would be more than happy to make the relationship even closer.

His rate is fairly high to us, but I know he is happy to discount the rate for us. I really appreciate it. A lot of people discount their rate working for us as well. I just feel a lot of appreciation of that, and hope I could pay them the rate they deserve (or other type of compensation) very very soon.

Re: What frustrates me the most as an entrepreneur

#55

Post by jsavimbi » Sun, Aug 07, 2011, 4:56 PM UTC

billswift wrote: post #34

uniquejosh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked what you said. Yes, I want him to focus on UX 110%, and not worry too much on the money. But, the fair rate to him is too high to us. That is the struggle. I am sure we will find a fee we are both fine with. But, I just wish that I could pay him, or anyone in the team, the rate reflecting their value. That is it. :)

Find someone that may not be quite that good, but is ambitious and still learning, then help him grow into what you need.

I have to go with Bill here. A mistake I see often repeated by the inexperienced is that they think they need a designer on staff that will produce work for everything from branding and business cards to social media and UX development. You don't need to hire a seasoned UX pro and I give you this advice from the perspective of a seasoned UX pro.

You need branding and some design work done for your business needs and your application: hire an agency or a self-contained talented designer. They're out there, they may be expensive in the short-term, but if they create a well-documented, solid style guide, it will pay off in the future. After the contract is up and the work has been delivered, part ways and maybe continue to employ them sparingly as needed, but there's no reason to keep them on. What are they going to do when you run out of tasks for them? They'll leave.

The person you do need to hire is young, energetic developer who can build UX and is eager to learn. That means they can take a PS comp and a style guide and build the apps you need in HTML, CSS and Javascript with extensible production-level code. Want to know who to hire? Have them submit their github, stackexchange and rss feeds. Measure progress and ability levels and set their salary expectations accordingly. Most developers who are eager to learn will jump at the opportunity to work on a project that may teach them new skills. Just keep the work interesting enough and they'll be good to go.

Your UX prospect has design talent and can code? Then your screwed. There's so much work out there right now that if it comes down to salary, they can walk out at any minute.

Re: What frustrates me the most as an entrepreneur

#56

Post by nasmorn » Sun, Aug 07, 2011, 5:56 PM UTC

uniquejosh wrote: post #29

techiferous wrote: post #10

When I talk about shares/options, I am serious. I am not trying to con you to be a low-paid slave. I want to share our prosperity and success with you when the time comes. I never take the offer of equity as a con. I see it for what it is: a high-risk investment because the founder does not have enough capital to pay. The main point here is that when the time comes should really be if the time comes . If you are a fo…

I think you make a fair point. Yes, that is true. It is a high-risk investment for other employees, and different people can take different level of risks. It would not be fair to ask a late thirty person to take the same risk as a early twenty person. People have different financial concerns in different stage of lives. I think a good founder need to consider that. It is just not right to ask everyone takes the same…

Don't forget that when you eventually go under (or in your case if) some employees will usually stay on past the time when you can actually pay them. It is very hard to fire them because you will cling to the hope you can still make it.

In Austria there is luckily an employee compensation fund for insolvencies that pays out 3 months wages as long as employees claim the money in time. If you don't have that you will (might) be in for an even tougher decision.

Disclaimer: I don't claim your startup will fail with certainty but statistically that is what you are in for, so better think about what you want to do ex ante.

Re: What frustrates me the most as an entrepreneur

#57

Post by uniquejosh » Mon, Aug 08, 2011, 9:33 AM UTC

startupcto wrote: post #49

First, if you can't afford an UX guy, even just paying him something fair, then why even hire one? Work with him as contractor first but for a fix rate rate. That way he doesn't have to leave his paying job and gets to work with the team. Nights or weekends whatever works for him. Second, again you probably don't need an UX guy now. Dig into your heart, whats not working for Minutebox? User adoption or just the plain…

Thanks for the great comments.

Yes, we are planning to work with him on a contract basis. It would be the best for both of us.

We have learned a lot from our users, and know what problems we need to solve now. We are working on the most important bit of the conversion funnel maximisation, and we think some UX input could help us to do that better, quicker, and more efficient.

Re: What frustrates me the most as an entrepreneur

#58

Post by kyberias » Mon, Aug 08, 2011, 2:02 PM UTC

rjbond3rd wrote: post #16

kyberias wrote: post #6

What frustrates me the most about your blog is the fact that when I want to know what the heck Minutebox is, the link doesn't really work.

Works for me (Firefox 5 on Linux). Post your browser/OS so the OP knows there's a defect and can test against that combination.

I mean the first "powered by minutebox" link on the page. It opens minutebox in the same iframe. Well, technically the links works. And yes, this is Chrome/Windows 7.