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Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

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Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#61

Post by billpatrianakos »

jph wrote: post #38

> And realize you’re part of history. You're a part of history whatever you do. Spend time with your friends and family, volunteer to help others, get outdoors and enjoy the world. Take some college classes if you like, and drop out if you like. Learn something beautiful and utterly useless like calligraphy. Travel to India. Explore ideas, meditation, and Zen. I daresay your startup will be better, stronger, faster,…

This post is trying to say be a part of history in a significant way. But in reality your Lolcats/Facebook/Whatever wannabe site isnt important in the least. The only part of history that the people in SV startup land will become is the part of history where investors were throwing money at companies that had ideas with no products or execution or strategy for making money at all. We'll end up as the part of history that's remembered for I justified valuations, hype, and a huge busted bubble that ruins everything for the few companies that actually are worth funding. Most of the new trendy startups I've seen can be run on $50,000 a year max and I'm being generous. All you need is a server and some code, not a billion dollar valuation for a CRUD web app.

Very few startups are destined to be great or even decent. Very, very few. It's a shame that so many are getting so much hype without justification these days.

Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#62

Post by DanielBMarkham »

My favorite numbers for startups are that they have a 1-in-20 chance of succeeding.

I don't know where I got those numbers from -- seems like I've heard PG use a 1-in-10 chance, but you get the general feel for the situation. You should work in such a way as to acknowledge those numbers. I'm not saying don't work hard -- far from it. Just work as if this is stage 1 of a 20-stage process, each stage lasting a year or two. If you're not working in such a fashion that you can go a decade or two, logic says you have mis-configured your work habits.

I had this same attitude when I moved from the commercial world into startups, get your ass in gear and buck up! That was a few years ago, and I've moderated my views quite a bit due to brutal reality. I think part of the problem for me was that I was trying to compare the startup world to either the academic world or to the commercial software world. In both of those scenarios you worked as hard as hell for a limited period of time and then you delivered. You took the test, you released the product, you passed the class.

Startups aren't like that because the work is never done. There is no huge finish line you sprint through. It just keeps going and going. The cutesy way of saying this is "it's a marathon, not a sprint" but I'm not sure that even covers it adequately. It's not a race at all. It's just a long, hard slog. Yeah sure, if you've got traction it is a hell of a roller-coaster ride, but I'd worry about then if-and-only-if that day actually arrives. Work like Facebook did to get their first million users when you actually start attracting hundreds of thousands of users and you're looking that potential in the face, not before.

Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#63

Post by itmag »

neilk wrote: post #57
itmag wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, that's some cool ideas right there! Upvoted for truth and justice. I'm all for exploring unconventional lifestyle design patterns. And I have been nursing certain plans of becoming a techno-hippie :)

Thanks. By the way -- another possibility is to work for technology projects which aren't really in the startup game. A lot of my friends work for the Wikimedia Foundation, Thunderbird, Mozilla, Tor, and so on. There's no possibility of walking away as a zillionaire, but neither do you have to work with (or for) dickwads who are only in it for the money and who are out to screw you out of your share. And if you're an…

How do I get started?

Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#64

Post by itmag »

csallen wrote: post #60
itmag wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in my early 20s. Startups seem to be the only way out of 40 years of mediocrity in TPS-land for me, so I don't really think I have much of a choice. It's startups or nothing for me. Or maybe I am being myopic? Are there more options to be had in life than mediocrity/wageslavery vs glory/startups?

Just because you're starting a company doesn't mean you need to raise millions of dollars, work 80 hours a week, and try to become the next Facebook. Alternatively, you can raise (or save) a moderate amount of cash, work comfortably at whatever pace you choose, and build something scalable and sellable. If you're making quality software, it's not difficult to generate enough passive income to support the lifestyle yo…

Yes, that sounds like a dream come true. Got any pointers for me?

Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#65

Post by tmurray »

neilk wrote: post #51

This is insane . You realize that all the quotes are from a post called the author describes as a 'cautionary tale'? ( http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/nscpdorm.html ) I think jwz sums it up best in another post, where he talks about the best case scenario: becoming rich from your startup: I've known dozens of instant-millionaires so far (from Netscape as well as other companies), and basically, I don't speak to any of the…

Yeah, this article left me speechless. Why would you use jwz to justify startup culture? jwz left the tech industry completely in 2000 and bought DNA Lounge.

Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#66

Post by nostrademons »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #62

My favorite numbers for startups are that they have a 1-in-20 chance of succeeding. I don't know where I got those numbers from -- seems like I've heard PG use a 1-in-10 chance, but you get the general feel for the situation. You should work in such a way as to acknowledge those numbers. I'm not saying don't work hard -- far from it. Just work as if this is stage 1 of a 20-stage process, each stage lasting a year or…

PG also said that the 1-in-10 chance is an average, across many different people, and individual circumstances may dramatically alter those odds. Some startups are virtually certain to succeed. Others probably have a 1 in a 1000 chance.

I think you're better off working really hard for a while - enough to fully explore the problem space you've gotten in - and then taking stock of the situation and learning your lessons. Then, hopefully your odds are better next time, and with any luck, the process eventually converges on success.

Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#67

Post by neilk »

itmag wrote: post #63
neilk wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. By the way -- another possibility is to work for technology projects which aren't really in the startup game. A lot of my friends work for the Wikimedia Foundation, Thunderbird, Mozilla, Tor, and so on. There's no possibility of walking away as a zillionaire, but neither do you have to work with (or for) dickwads who are only in it for the money and who are out to screw you out of your share. And if you're an…

How do I get started?

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/careers.html

I don't think you get a job at Tor without being personally known to the developers. Volunteer, I guess.

Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#68

Post by lfittl »

itmag wrote: post #64
csallen wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you're starting a company doesn't mean you need to raise millions of dollars, work 80 hours a week, and try to become the next Facebook. Alternatively, you can raise (or save) a moderate amount of cash, work comfortably at whatever pace you choose, and build something scalable and sellable. If you're making quality software, it's not difficult to generate enough passive income to support the lifestyle yo…

Yes, that sounds like a dream come true. Got any pointers for me?

Rob Walling's book is a nice how-to for this kind of entrepreneurship http://www.startupbook.net/

(not affiliated with the author in any way, just enjoyed the book myself)

Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#69

Post by xarien »

rhizome wrote: post #6
xarien wrote: post #4

And that's why my hiring criteria has always hinged on the level of compulsion said candidate exhibits. Sleep needs to be a secondary concern when stacked against a deadline. Although, I will be the first to admit that every now and then I fully rest up and swear I'm going to get more sleep because I can actually see the productivity increase. That thought is often a quickly fleeting thought however....

Interesting. How successful has this strategy of hiring only compulsives been for you? Assuming you're not joking, of course.

Pretty well even in a corporate environment. The word compulsion was used to polarize and by the comment score card, it did a pretty good job at getting a rise out of a few people. A more positively associated word to be used would be dedication and I find it to be a great ruler to measure the quality of candidates.

Re: Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining

#70

Post by xarien »

dextorious wrote: post #14
xarien wrote: post #4

And that's why my hiring criteria has always hinged on the level of compulsion said candidate exhibits. Sleep needs to be a secondary concern when stacked against a deadline. Although, I will be the first to admit that every now and then I fully rest up and swear I'm going to get more sleep because I can actually see the productivity increase. That thought is often a quickly fleeting thought however....

"""Sleep needs to be a secondary concern when stacked against a deadline.""" Actually there is only one deadline that matters, and it's called death. If your company is "stacked against deadlines" in order to compete, you're doing it wrong. "Fast time to market" is a rat race for marginal benefits, not a business strategy. Google didn't get #1 because it was first on the market. Neither did Facebook, Microsoft et al.

Honestly, deadlines aren't there to be first to market. Deadlines are there so you can accurately pace / measures yourself. Once deadlines start slipping, it's a slippery slope. At some point, you may have to look at the planning to see if the plan itself is too aggressive given the resource constraints. With that said, I firmly believe that a strong team needs to stand behind deadlines however arbitrary.
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