The side hustle from hell

This just makes me glad I don't work in the startup space anymore

I get it, why a young ambitious 20-something would be sucked into this.

Sometimes you just need to make your own mistakes to learn, even if you read / hear from others that you shouldn't do that thing.

C'est la vie.

This is the classic dead-end startup story from beginning to end. It checks all the boxes:

- 3 non-technical cofounders

- Flurry of activity for everything other than acquiring customers

- Attempt to outsource development followed by disappointment

- Relentless scope creep

- Zero go to market plan, just an incessant belief that more features in the app will solve all problems

There is also one less obvious point that is buried in the article:

> Simultaneously, my underpaid mid-level consultancy role passed me up for promotion again. I wanted out, double-time.

I did volunteer mentoring for a while. Few people went all-in on unpaid startup jobs as their primary role, but many were tempted to do it as side projects. They always believe it’s less risky. The risk they don’t see is that it distracts them from their main job, either slowing career growth or risking a PIP or layoff.

The common thread I kept coming back to was this: Ignore the side projects. Focus on career growth at your day job. Put your primary energy into growing your career or finding a job where you can.

Something about the side hustle continues to lure people into thinking it’s a way out, until they burn themselves out and sabotage their day job while doing it.

Very surprising that well-designed contracts (with well-designed exit clauses among other issues) aren't at the top of the 'ten red flags' list. This isn't just a problem with tech startups - business partners down the ages have been burning each other with flimsy contractual agreements and 'trust me buddy' rationales when questioned about the contracts.

This is one of the best use cases for LLMs by the way - they can often explain contracts to you, or find flaws in contracts. Try pasting one of those long-winded click-through contracts from Apple etc. into any LLM and see if they can help you decipher the terms - then do this with your startup's hiring contract. Also, watch 'The Social Network' and pay attention to things like stock-split clauses and so on.

Some claim the world is split between those who understand compound interest and those who don't but I think it's understanding contract law that matters more.

I've worked with many startups and many VCs. The best VCs are investing in the team, not the product idea. The idea itself is basically nothing. It can get blown up in an instant and require a pivot. But the investor wants to know that the money they're giving out is going to people actually recognizing that and capable of successfully switching gears.

They're investing in people, not some singular half-baked idea that very likely goes nowhere.

In this case it sounds like both the idea was bad, and the team was bad.