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The last day

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Re: The last day

#61

Post by tptacek »

monochromatic wrote: post #58
tptacek wrote: post #54

The amount of privilege built into this "painful failure" is disquieting. Here's a person whose biggest problem in life appears to be that he's in debt and, for the moment, unemployed. But: he was the CEO of a company funded to the tune of 8xFTE, and can thus almost certainly walk into hundreds of VP/Product Management or Business Development roles immediately, all of which will pay him more than any of his technical…

I'm not sure which part of a story about a guy whose dream crashed, whose bank account is less than empty, and whose girlfriend left made you think "I am offended that he is upset."

I am not offended that he's upset.

Re: The last day

#62

Post by monochromatic »

tptacek wrote: post #61
monochromatic wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure which part of a story about a guy whose dream crashed, whose bank account is less than empty, and whose girlfriend left made you think "I am offended that he is upset."

I am not offended that he's upset.

I paraphrased. You are disquieted at the level of privilege displayed.

Whatever that means.

Re: The last day

#63

Post by ChristianMarks »

The ending is wrong. The former CEO should not just sulk in darkness. He should be consumed with terror and overwhelming anxiety as he sinks with his gutted office into to the sulphurous underworld, while low-level demon-bureaucrats from Hades emerge from the pit to jab at him with their pitchforks.

Re: The last day

#64

Post by [deleted] »

fatbird wrote: post #38
Udo wrote: post #5

This story mirrors my startup experience exactly , including the moment where I had to lay off my friends, took a last long look at "our place" before turning the lights off, remembering that this was what I had sacrificed my relationship for, including the ending where I thought of nothing but the crushing mountain of personal debt. In some ways, this is the archetypical founder's nightmare, and it's happening every…

What it should do is motivate founders to 1) read the 'sunk cost fallacy' article on Wikipedia, and 2) set clear lines well before 'mountain of personal debt' and 'ruined relationships', where you call it over. I walked away from a startup when it ran out of money. The founders were floating a proposal to guarantee a business loan with their houses. That, to me, was a bridge too far, an inability to recognize too muc…

[deleted]

Re: The last day

#65

Post by moocow01 »

tptacek wrote: post #54

The amount of privilege built into this "painful failure" is disquieting. Here's a person whose biggest problem in life appears to be that he's in debt and, for the moment, unemployed. But: he was the CEO of a company funded to the tune of 8xFTE, and can thus almost certainly walk into hundreds of VP/Product Management or Business Development roles immediately, all of which will pay him more than any of his technical…

You are correct that their is some privilege but depending on the situation the clean up / fallout of a failed company can really be quite bad.

Many times founders can be left with astronomical debt pretty much guaranteeing bankruptcy being the only way out. Additionally its not unheard for business loans to have a house on the line as collateral. This doesn't mean this is always the situation but is not as rare of a story as one may think.

Re: The last day

#66

Post by tptacek »

m0th87 wrote: post #60
tptacek wrote: post #54

The amount of privilege built into this "painful failure" is disquieting. Here's a person whose biggest problem in life appears to be that he's in debt and, for the moment, unemployed. But: he was the CEO of a company funded to the tune of 8xFTE, and can thus almost certainly walk into hundreds of VP/Product Management or Business Development roles immediately, all of which will pay him more than any of his technical…

I think everyone has had that moment when they think "no one knows this pain." It's easy to lose perspective when everything - from a relative perspective - looks like it's collapsing. One could similarly make the argument that a factory worker in the midwest should get some perspective and see how bad the kids with swollen stomachs and vultures overhead have it. Obviously that's not fair. This is a person who commit…

I think you have a better bead on it that I can do; it's about perspective. And, obviously: all I have to go on is what's actually written in this post. I have a feeling that people are going to project their own experiences into that post and read my response accordingly. I have no idea what you've been through; I just know what this person says they've dealt with.

Please understand, though: it's not that someone is worse-off than this startup founder. There's always someone worse off. The unemployed factory worker is in a far better position than an impoverished rural Chinese farmer. It's that most people are worse-off than the startup founder. Even most Americans.

Re: The last day

#67

Post by tptacek »

monochromatic wrote: post #62
tptacek wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not offended that he's upset.

I paraphrased. You are disquieted at the level of privilege displayed. Whatever that means.

I think you know what "I'm not saying that startup people are so lucky that they're not allowed to be unhappy when their companies fail" means.

Re: The last day

#68

Post by monochromatic »

tptacek wrote: post #67
monochromatic wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I paraphrased. You are disquieted at the level of privilege displayed. Whatever that means.

I think you know what "I'm not saying that startup people are so lucky that they're not allowed to be unhappy when their companies fail" means.

Indeed. But maybe it's too late, or maybe I've had one scotch too many... I'm not sure what you're getting at with "I am saying something else that is more subtle than that" though.

Re: The last day

#69

Post by tptacek »

monochromatic wrote: post #68
tptacek wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you know what "I'm not saying that startup people are so lucky that they're not allowed to be unhappy when their companies fail" means.

Indeed. But maybe it's too late, or maybe I've had one scotch too many... I'm not sure what you're getting at with "I am saying something else that is more subtle than that" though.

I salute you for posting while intoxicated. It works well for me too. It's not that the author of this post is unhappy that his startup failed. It's that he's lost perspective; that you could plausibly write a post thanking the universe for having been in a position to take a shot on the kind of company that makes vanity stickers for itself (note: founder of company w/ vanity stickers, posters, and refrigerator magnets), and for being able to do that with the kinds of employees who can surely leave their posts at that company for an even higher-paid job.

It's hard for me to unpack my comment more than that. I wrote what I thought after I read the post. I make no claim to that comment being unassailable; in fact, I made the opposite claim in the comment!

Maybe it's the question that's most important to me. Take a swipe at it? What's so bad about a tech startup failing in 2012?

Re: The last day

#70

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #54

The amount of privilege built into this "painful failure" is disquieting. Here's a person whose biggest problem in life appears to be that he's in debt and, for the moment, unemployed. But: he was the CEO of a company funded to the tune of 8xFTE, and can thus almost certainly walk into hundreds of VP/Product Management or Business Development roles immediately, all of which will pay him more than any of his technical…

[deleted]
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