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Half-Baked Product

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Re: Half-Baked Product

#391

Post by m463 »

overgard wrote: post #371
TrackerFF wrote: post #138

One important part of the story is in the very beginning: The founder’s motivation. To become wealthy. You see this in the startup world a lot. Founders with 5+ failed startups in different sectors, because said founder picked the fields mainly by doing some market analysis. Not domain expertise. There’s then a big mismatch between what the founder thinks is possible, and what the domain expert thinks is possible. Th…

Musk strikes me as a guy that keeps succeeding despite his bad ideas because the system is so rigged that getting wealthy off one good bet can sustain you forever. I mean, his track record this entire decade is proposterously stupid (cybertruck, twitter, everything he says on twitter, the CSAM and deepfake creation engine known as grok, DOGE, etc.). When his companies succeed, its mostly because the people he's hired…

I think Musk actually wasn't in it for the money.

He made all the money first the silicon valley way (paypal) and then decided to actually make and sell non-software/ip things that physically exist. I think that is actually hard. And if successful very valuable.

Although making software isn't easy, I think there are lots of silicon valley types who create IP, but enter a super-competitive market. IP can be valuable, but it might be quick and easy to spool up a competitor and/or copy it.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#392

Post by fragmede »

fragmede wrote: post #338
Skwid wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also the upgrade path of 2 dishwashers with a single 'clean' token moved between the two. Cupboards are an legacy product holding back progress.

So the product to make then, is a dishwasher that's the size of cabinets, so people can afford to have two of them in the existing space that they have.

Wait, someone's already doing this! https://www.fisherpaykel.com/us/dishwashing/dishdrawer-dishw...

Re: Half-Baked Product

#393

Post by spopejoy »

icegreentea2 wrote: post #237

I like this part: The founder gets angry. He promised the VCs 10% of Spain’s oven market. The entire market. “We can’t sacrifice any of them.” It’s not just greed. The 5 million was raised with the entire market on the slide. The founder isn’t choosing between right and wrong: he’s choosing which promise to break. I wonder what the author had in mind when he wrote "which promise to break". Is the founder thinking abo…

The founder portrait is surprisingly sympathetic given what a train wreck is being described. This one stood out for me:

> The founder has it all figured out: the problem was never the plan. The problem was the execution

"Execution" being one of those magic business words, I've said this exact thing but only once lampooned thusly did it dawn on me how psychotic it is. If VC-funded startups are almost by definition about "a big vision", then the vision is never wrong -- a self-consuming logic answered by the magic of Execution.

Interestingly, what is ignored there is the founder is also the CEO here, so if the execution was bad ... shouldn't he be fired?

Re: Half-Baked Product

#394

Post by brailsafe »

alexashka wrote: post #390
Shacklz wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> + the whole "I am a elite Path of Exile"-saga That was the most "the emperor wears no clothes"-moment I've ever witnessed in my life. I play more PoE than I care to admit, and it was obvious within mere seconds that he has absolutely no clue what's going on. It was absolutely surreal to watch.

[flagged]

Keep the totally out of pocket red-pill misogyny outta here. Where did that even come from

Re: Half-Baked Product

#395

Post by prime_ursid »

weitendorf wrote: post #175
clan wrote: post #10

This was such a funny and refreshing read. Especially to find on this VC fuelled forum. There was so much truth in this on a Dilbertesque level. If you can learn from this you are winning. I am not saying "VC bad". I am saying it is a sharp-edged tool which you need to wield with great care. This humorous piece really points out the pitfalls. Worth the read - do not just lurk here in the comment section (as I usually…

I had the opposite reaction, this felt like a story that was literally purpose-built for pandering the hn audience without saying anything interesting. Good fiction teaches you something you hadn't seen before, or challenges your perspective, or articulates a point of view or personality that you had never before considered. If it's just "some guy went to work and it sucked and he was right and everyone else was wron…

Nah, I disagree. I can see why you think this is another piece glorifying engineers at the expense of the business. However, as a technical founder in a former life, I saw a handful of mistakes that the engineers made. Lack of focus, lack of pushback, poor management of the engineering team, lack of product thinking, lack of connection to and empathy for the end user. I could find more if I re-read it.

I found this piece to contain more layers of detail than the usual feel-good dunk-on-bean-counters rants.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#396

Post by taneq »

overgard wrote: post #371
TrackerFF wrote: post #138

One important part of the story is in the very beginning: The founder’s motivation. To become wealthy. You see this in the startup world a lot. Founders with 5+ failed startups in different sectors, because said founder picked the fields mainly by doing some market analysis. Not domain expertise. There’s then a big mismatch between what the founder thinks is possible, and what the domain expert thinks is possible. Th…

Musk strikes me as a guy that keeps succeeding despite his bad ideas because the system is so rigged that getting wealthy off one good bet can sustain you forever. I mean, his track record this entire decade is proposterously stupid (cybertruck, twitter, everything he says on twitter, the CSAM and deepfake creation engine known as grok, DOGE, etc.). When his companies succeed, its mostly because the people he's hired…

I think he genuinely broke his brain during the Model 3 ramp up. They were in production hell for something like a year, and he hasn’t been quite right ever since. Maybe that was just the point at which he got rich enough to stop caring what other people think, though.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#397

Post by oenton »

imjonse wrote: post #57

While the majority of comments are absolutely right in recognizing and lamenting such situations plaguing our industry, let's not forget this is an ultimate first world problem. It can be stressful and frustrating but we are a privileged bunch to be able to call this 'pain'.

Yes, whatever your situation there's always someone who has has it worse than you. Your comment does not add anything of substance to this conversation. It's also flawed. Sharing and talking about (first world) problems like these is important, lest they become the 'norm' and no longer a 'problem'.

Anecdotally I remember 1 hour to 90 minute lunches being the norm 10 years ago. Now, taking more than 30 minutes feels like I need to play 'catch up', primarily because the workload and expectations of SWEs has increased dramatically since then. The pay? Not commensurate. And that's even if you include the short lived post-Covid spike in salaries.

"Be grateful for what you have" gets old quick, especially when leaders (and I use that term loosely) use any opportunity to take more and more.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#398

Post by mdavid626 »

notatoad wrote: post #324
mdavid626 wrote: post #321

It’s very simple. Everbody just wants to make money. Startups have nothing to do with innovation or making the world a better place. It feels like it’s about creating the bubble, inflating it and cashing out before it bursts.

I don’t think that’s true. Some people really do have product ideas that they want to share with the world. The problem is that those people are really bad at making money, and have a hard time competing with the people whose motivation is money.

That’s exactly what I mean as well. Of course behind startups the basic idea is to innovate. But this gets lots, because most of people just want to make money. VC-s don’t care about innovation, they care that the money they put in, comes back.

It’s not evil, it’s just how money-oriented society works.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#400

Post by aryehof »

TrackerFF wrote: post #138

One important part of the story is in the very beginning: The founder’s motivation. To become wealthy. You see this in the startup world a lot. Founders with 5+ failed startups in different sectors, because said founder picked the fields mainly by doing some market analysis. Not domain expertise. There’s then a big mismatch between what the founder thinks is possible, and what the domain expert thinks is possible. Th…

> pretty fluent in consultant

Thanks, gave me a chuckle. One to remember.

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