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My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

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Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#51

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

jamesaurichs wrote: post #44
mustafa_pasi wrote: post #26

All I'm thinking is, you Americans are really fucking lucky. Yeah OK, VCs are greedy and difficult to work with, but at least they give you a chance and literally give you startup capital in the millions to build your own thing. That is mind blowing to me and definitely what sets America apart from everywhere else.

The built-in culture of risk taking in US can't be underestimated. Yes, we joke about Florida man and lament about the excess funding for startups. But with great risk comes great reward, and chances for inexperienced founders to prove themselves. Nowhere else on the planet are you able to do that with such magnitude, not in Japan, not in Europe, not in China (now that they're broke and in a Great Depression, and Xi…

And in what sense are we better off for this?

Is the claim that innovation only happens in the USA? That the only good companies are US companies? What are the specific benefits, other than merely indulging the startup fantasies of a relatively small number of founders, that come from this "high risk, high reward" environment?

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#52

Post by jacquesm »

kcsavvy wrote: post #47

Elements of this story indicate a founder who simply lost control of their company, which is their job as a founder. I don’t think the VC is the villain here. They raised at an inflated valuation and seemingly received a favorable multiple (100-10x “7-figure” revenue). The fact that they rode out the company to 0 means they had board control and were never fired. So they are ultimately responsible for every decision…

Exactly that's the big takeaway: he didn't learn what he should have learned: that it was his horse to lead. A CEO that slavishly follows the VCs has abdicated.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#53

Post by fuzztester »

Xeoncross wrote: post #22
game_the0ry wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is too real in big corp as well as the VC funded start up world. A bunch of bourgeoisie over-educated idiots, usually with MBAs, who don't know how to do anything except take credit for work that other people do.

The solutions presented great. The made sense. They smelled good. They made great leadership stories. ...but none of it actually mattered to the customer.

Yeah!

Reminds me of a project life cycle cartoon I first saw in a software book early in my career.

Just now searched for "systems analysis tyre cartoon" and selected this page, which seems the best, on a brief look, since it has both some history and multiple versions of the cartoon:

https://www.businessballs.com/amusement-stress-relief/tree-s...

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#54

Post by jacquesm »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #40

Are all VCs like this or did OP strike out with some bad apples?

I don't think the VCs are to blame at all. This is a one sided story but that side already gives off so many signals of not being cut out for the job that it isn't surprising to see them heaping the blame on another party. If you're the CEO and you are looking for capital you don't do that whilst giving the capital providers a mandate to run your company by proxy. That's on him. If VCs tell you to do 'X' and you don't agree you're well within your rights as CTO to tell them to shove it. (But more politely, of course.)

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#55

Post by jamesaurichs »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #51
jamesaurichs wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The built-in culture of risk taking in US can't be underestimated. Yes, we joke about Florida man and lament about the excess funding for startups. But with great risk comes great reward, and chances for inexperienced founders to prove themselves. Nowhere else on the planet are you able to do that with such magnitude, not in Japan, not in Europe, not in China (now that they're broke and in a Great Depression, and Xi…

And in what sense are we better off for this? Is the claim that innovation only happens in the USA? That the only good companies are US companies? What are the specific benefits, other than merely indulging the startup fantasies of a relatively small number of founders, that come from this "high risk, high reward" environment?

We get more rockets (literally), faster.

We get Tesla, SpaceX, Google, Facebook, AirBnB, Stripe, etc...

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#56

Post by ethbr0 »

Aurornis wrote: post #36

> Ultimately I ended up with a bunch of highly paid employees who don’t know how to do anything but to “build and lead amazing teams.” I've worked at a lot of startups. The worst of them were led by people who list things like "organization design" and "build and lead amazing teams" on their LinkedIn. At the most dysfunctional company, the ex-FAANG CTO would take key job descriptions and add the requirement that they…

I interviewed a guy the other day.

CS degree.

"I have a proven track record of building and leading amazing engineering teams."

"Okay. What's the difference between a character and a string?"

*crickets*

We all have our specialities, but jesus ¢@&#ing christ: if you're interviewing for an engineering role, of any sort, you should be able to answer basic questions.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#58

Post by yieldcrv »

ethbr0 wrote: post #56
Aurornis wrote: post #36

> Ultimately I ended up with a bunch of highly paid employees who don’t know how to do anything but to “build and lead amazing teams.” I've worked at a lot of startups. The worst of them were led by people who list things like "organization design" and "build and lead amazing teams" on their LinkedIn. At the most dysfunctional company, the ex-FAANG CTO would take key job descriptions and add the requirement that they…

I interviewed a guy the other day. CS degree. "I have a proven track record of building and leading amazing engineering teams." "Okay. What's the difference between a character and a string?" *crickets* We all have our specialities, but jesus ¢@&#ing christ: if you're interviewing for an engineering role, of any sort, you should be able to answer basic questions.

The bytes it takes up and how it can be cast? What answer would you be looking for

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#59

Post by Zetice »

jamesaurichs wrote: post #44
mustafa_pasi wrote: post #26

All I'm thinking is, you Americans are really fucking lucky. Yeah OK, VCs are greedy and difficult to work with, but at least they give you a chance and literally give you startup capital in the millions to build your own thing. That is mind blowing to me and definitely what sets America apart from everywhere else.

The built-in culture of risk taking in US can't be underestimated. Yes, we joke about Florida man and lament about the excess funding for startups. But with great risk comes great reward, and chances for inexperienced founders to prove themselves. Nowhere else on the planet are you able to do that with such magnitude, not in Japan, not in Europe, not in China (now that they're broke and in a Great Depression, and Xi…

It’s not actually “great” risk, is the secret.

The advantage is not in American recklessness, it’s in American shamelessness. The only risk made is in the money, someone’s “honor” doesn’t play into it, for the most part.

Re: My $0->$100M->$0 in 5 years story

#60

Post by F-W-M »

yieldcrv wrote: post #58
ethbr0 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed a guy the other day. CS degree. "I have a proven track record of building and leading amazing engineering teams." "Okay. What's the difference between a character and a string?" *crickets* We all have our specialities, but jesus ¢@&#ing christ: if you're interviewing for an engineering role, of any sort, you should be able to answer basic questions.

The bytes it takes up and how it can be cast? What answer would you be looking for

"Strings are sequences of characters" or sth. like that.
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