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a good thing to remember is that almost everyone out there and here on HN is a egotist first and a hacker (worker, etc) second
When starting companies with fellow egotists, do not be passive-aggressive, and do not choose passive-aggressive partners.
Best business advice I've been given: always make sure there are an odd number of founders so you can always get a resolution to any disagreements.
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I have a good friend who I've known for many years. Very smart. So I ask him if he would be interested in coming up with a domain and told him he would be rewarded if we became successful. His response was that he would, but he wanted me to write up a contract. I thought, You've got to be kidding me. So I put on my lawyer hat and spent several hours writing up a contract making sure the language was as sound as could…
If you promise a reward based on 'success', then your friend was right to get a contract from you. For such a small contribution though the whole thing sounds rather silly. Better to pay something upfront and/or ask for pro bono.
The woman who designed the Nike Swoosh was simply paid. Several years later the founder of Nike gave her stock to show his gratitude for helping define the brand.
Doing a startup with a friend is similar to renting an apartment together. You are almost guaranteed huge problems that will put a strain on your relationship. All this talk about putting things in writing is more or less bullshit. Yes you will know who is right based on your preparations...but so what? All this will do is make the final decision easier in a dispute for the winner...but thats it. The other person wil…
This is basically how family works. Every party should have a right to be 'right' in the agreed range of situations (my wife is always right in the house, no matter what). So, the founders should split the territory and then follow to the agreement.
1. Make sure they have A+ work ethic. I partnered with an A+ friend with a B- work ethic, and things definitely did not go well. I've also partnered with B- friends with A+ work ethic, and now they're still business partners and some of my best friends.
2. Operate as a meritocracy. This was touched upon, but most of the time your partners will have other obligations. Every week, we set goals that each person must meet before the week's end. We have a policy where if anyone misses his or her weekly goals over a certain threshold, that person is relieved from his or her position. This happened once in my case, but the person accepted it and totally understood because he had other obligations to deal with.
This is gold. Almost everyone new to entrepreneurship makes this mistake (not setting very clear expectations early on in a business), and it sucks. Here's the comment I left on the site: -- Very wise advice from someone whose already been there. Three more questions to think about: 1. Expenses: What is and is not an expense? Especially getting clear on business entertainment, business travel, "general life expenses…
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If you promise a reward based on 'success', then your friend was right to get a contract from you. For such a small contribution though the whole thing sounds rather silly. Better to pay something upfront and/or ask for pro bono.
True. But I don't think he would have been satisfied with some fee -- he would have been prudent enough to realize the possibility of success so the contract was inevitable. The woman who designed the Nike Swoosh was simply paid. Several years later the founder of Nike gave her stock to show his gratitude for helping define the brand.
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I would really like to know, if you would not mind explaining, how are we all egotists. I believe myself that HN tends to attract better-than-average, educated, ambitious people. Egotism goes a bit with that. But to all being like that.
What you have just said is exactly egotism. From wikipedia: "Egotism is the motivation to maintain and enhance favorable views of self." and also: "Various forms of "empirical egoism" can be consistent with egotism, as long as the value of one's own self-benefit is entirely individual." It just comes out in the difficult situations like doing a startup (in a war, etc). That particular thread shows how people fight to…
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True. But I don't think he would have been satisfied with some fee -- he would have been prudent enough to realize the possibility of success so the contract was inevitable. The woman who designed the Nike Swoosh was simply paid. Several years later the founder of Nike gave her stock to show his gratitude for helping define the brand.
I think he or you are overstating the importance of the domain name. There's nothing inherently special about the Nike swoosh. It just happen to be on shoes that people like to wear.
Show anyone the swoosh and they either associate it with "Just Do It" (again, Nike's trademark) or Nike itself.
You might as well claim that Apple's startup chime is just another beep.
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This is basically how family works. Every party should have a right to be 'right' in the agreed range of situations (my wife is always right in the house, no matter what). So, the founders should split the territory and then follow to the agreement.
What? This is the formula for building a marriage in which you resent your wife 10 years down the line, not any way to build a successful company.
I would argue that his strategy couldn't be any worse for beating the odds than anyone else's, contrary to what you might believe.