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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

#161

Post by n_ary »

mustafa_pasi wrote: post #125
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…

Most definitely. I would say here in Germany, the number one thing that is missing is the culture. Everyone here is extremely risk averse and pessimistic. Then of course we don't get any startups and also no startup capital.

Let us not forget the immense paperwork and everything that entails, while I read that one can simply pay few hundred dollars in US and start their own business tomorrow.

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

#162

Post by codersfocus »

catboybotnet wrote: post #156
codersfocus wrote: post #124

Here's the real story: This is someone in their teenage to twenties, who makes 10 reddit accounts a month, farms karma on them, then sells them to spammers in a couple months for a couple hundred dollars each.

People care about karma? About updoots ?

Reddit moderators set rules such that many subreddits have minimum karma and age requirements to post.

If you're a marketer who wants to create networks of shill accounts (happens more than you think) then you need enough accounts that meet these requirements.

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

#164

Post by faangiq »

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.

Why not ask him what a bit is?

This is a low IQ question.

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

#165

Post by faangiq »

seizethecheese wrote: post #33

I’m a VC backed founder. The VCs will give you lots of advice, but generally are removed enough from the business that it’s obviously up to you to make final strategic decisions. This story is remarkable in one sense: the founder removes all of his own agency from the story. The vast majority of initial financing rounds leave the founders in control of companies these days… Finally, a VC backed company is always like…

He’s a standard FAANG manager. Failing on upppp …

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

#166

Post by yieldcrv »

ethbr0 wrote: post #129
janstice wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like someone who will make a four-page fizzbuzz solution, which was at one stage a highlight for us. What I try to get candidates to do in interviews is find the project they are most proud of, and get them to talk about it at a technical level - the constraints, challenges & solutions. That’s much harder to fake than pretty much anything else, and works at any technical level. My theory is that if they c…

I've also had good luck asking about a project they were on that went off the rails and what they'd do differently next time around. You can tell pretty quickly how involved they were and if they were thinking through solutions vs just doing as told.

> You can tell pretty quickly how involved they were and if they were thinking through solutions vs just doing as told.

Yes, but which has more utility for you.

Do you tell people what you are indexing for? Its not a fair assessment if you don't tell which has more utility for you, or don't tell the recruiter how to help people prepare and just gaslight people with "there's no right/wrong answer, I just want to see how you think" if you actually want someone that does what they were told or someone that synthesized solutions. Many people have experience in both environments and have an answer for both environments.

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

#167

Post by qwytw »

sneak wrote: post #103
adwn wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * And the average American doesn’t know that things they take fir granted are luxuries even to Western Europeans.* Such as? Name three examples, please. "smartphones and cars" doesn't cut it, those are pretty common even for low income citizens here in Germany at least, and we don't really need air conditioners on account of being located in higher latitudes – everyone has heating, though.

High quality food delivery (at any time, but especially after 22:00). 24 hour pharmacies. 24 hour grocery stores. Air conditioning. Cheap gas. Road trips where you have a personal vehicle when you arrive. Hot water in 100% of all handwashing sinks. Urgent care centers. Whole Foods. You're 100% wrong about not needing air conditioning in Germany. Many of the last 45 days here have been above 24C. You're just used to b…

Aside from 24 hours pharmacies/grocery stores and cheap gas none of those things seem particularly inaccessible in Europe.

If we want to focus on air conditioners this much it seems to me that he issue isn't that people can't afford them it's that it's very hard to get one installed if you live in an apartment building (because they weren't designed for that and due to all kinds of rules and regulation). Many people living in detached houses can easily get one without having their children skip lunch.

> Many of the last 45 days here have been above 24C

Depends on the house thick walls are pretty good in keeping heat out in summer.

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

#168

Post by Gunnerhead »

allarm wrote: post #108
sneak wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High quality food delivery (at any time, but especially after 22:00). 24 hour pharmacies. 24 hour grocery stores. Air conditioning. Cheap gas. Road trips where you have a personal vehicle when you arrive. Hot water in 100% of all handwashing sinks. Urgent care centers. Whole Foods. You're 100% wrong about not needing air conditioning in Germany. Many of the last 45 days here have been above 24C. You're just used to b…

> High quality food delivery… Funny thing is that you’ve described Moscow here. > You're 100% wrong about not needing air conditioning in Germany. I realize that for an average American Germany is just a point on the map, but here in the north we had only a couple of hot days this summer. Otherwise - a truly horrifying story.

> Funny thing is that you’ve described Moscow here.

Please do tell more. I’m curious to learn.

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

#169

Post by jen20 »

lotsofmoney wrote: post #89
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

An insane amount of money, world hegemony, and a very high standard of living. I’m not sure the average European appreciates just how comfortable life in the US is. And the average American doesn’t know that things they take fir granted are luxuries even to Western Europeans. Outside of a handful of small countries with specialized economies, European income per capita is at or below per capita income in even the poo…

> Outside of a handful of small countries with specialized economies, European income per capita is at or below per capita income in even the poorest US state.

And yet the quality of life doesn’t even begin to compare.

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

#170

Post by dns_snek »

jamesaurichs wrote: post #88
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Said another way, America is the sandbox for the rich to experiment on the poor, with technology that may or may not be good for the poor but ultimately doesn’t matter because the ultimate winner is always the one funding them. It’s the test and staging servers for global capitalism

Tesla creates American jobs for the poor to work in manufacturing SpaceX creates aspiration for the poor Google allows the poor to advertise their product to anyone in the world cheaply Facebook allows the poor to market their product to anyone in the world cheaply AirBnB allows the poor to live in an expensive city, cheaply Stripe allows the poor to sell their product to anyone in the world cheaply

> SpaceX creates aspiration for the poor

> AirBnB allows the poor to live in an expensive city, cheaply

Yeah you're definitely trolling, not cool... or your definition of "the poor" includes people with net worth of $10M.

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