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Startup Common Sense

42floors.com

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Re: Startup Common Sense

#11

Post by crazygringo »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #2

Here's some common sense: if you're the CEO of a startup, you should be focused on your own company. Period. This might come off as overly harsh, but it's absolutely true: taking 45-plus minutes out of your day to engage in an "argumentative" call with "the brother of a friend" who has a "world-changing idea" is a waste of time. As is blogging about it. Your job as CEO is not to advise other entrepreneurs or to preac…

No, a million times. If you're a human being, you should be focused on your life. Period.

That means appropriately dedicating time and effort to your company, if you have one, but not forgetting to live your life too, continuing to invest in your personal relationships, etc.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#12

Post by smacktoward »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #2

Here's some common sense: if you're the CEO of a startup, you should be focused on your own company. Period. This might come off as overly harsh, but it's absolutely true: taking 45-plus minutes out of your day to engage in an "argumentative" call with "the brother of a friend" who has a "world-changing idea" is a waste of time. As is blogging about it. Your job as CEO is not to advise other entrepreneurs or to preac…

And as long as we're on the subject, these "sleeping" and "eating" things you keep doing aren't exactly driving shareholder value, either! Get back to work!

Re: Startup Common Sense

#13

Post by simonw »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #2

Here's some common sense: if you're the CEO of a startup, you should be focused on your own company. Period. This might come off as overly harsh, but it's absolutely true: taking 45-plus minutes out of your day to engage in an "argumentative" call with "the brother of a friend" who has a "world-changing idea" is a waste of time. As is blogging about it. Your job as CEO is not to advise other entrepreneurs or to preac…

Absolutely disagree. Startups are a pay-it-forward economy: people help you out with advice for free, but in turn you are expected to help others out for free.

Plus, teaching others is one of the best ways to learn things for yourself.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#14

Post by thejteam »

pitt1980 wrote: post #5
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #2

Here's some common sense: if you're the CEO of a startup, you should be focused on your own company. Period. This might come off as overly harsh, but it's absolutely true: taking 45-plus minutes out of your day to engage in an "argumentative" call with "the brother of a friend" who has a "world-changing idea" is a waste of time. As is blogging about it. Your job as CEO is not to advise other entrepreneurs or to preac…

CEOs don't get 45 descretionary minutes?

Its one thing to spend 45 minutes on something, its another thing to use a blog hosted on an official company website to talk about it. Company blogs should be used for company business; personal blogs hosted on separate websites should be used for personal business.

Potential customers could be reading company blogs. I would be concerned if the CEO was spending time ruminating about startup philosophy on those blogs to potential customers.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#15

Post by benologist »

namenotrequired wrote: post #9
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #2

Here's some common sense: if you're the CEO of a startup, you should be focused on your own company. Period. This might come off as overly harsh, but it's absolutely true: taking 45-plus minutes out of your day to engage in an "argumentative" call with "the brother of a friend" who has a "world-changing idea" is a waste of time. As is blogging about it. Your job as CEO is not to advise other entrepreneurs or to preac…

I was under the impression 42floors use their blog as a way to come to the attention to their target audience.

42floors and others target HN because it's easy to pretend this is the target audience for virtually anything and watch those pageviews roll in.

There's a very simple way to tell if HN is really your target audience ... is writing startup bla bla that has nothing to do with your company the only way to get your company on the front page?

Re: Startup Common Sense

#16

Post by nemesisj »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #8
nemesisj wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow I couldn't disagree more. I have a rule that I'll never turn down a 30-45 minute catchup with someone who needs some advice, or wants a sounding board, or just wants to talk about something they're excited about. Life is about people, and has a funny way of turning things around so that those kinds of meetings grow into friendships, business connections, and sometimes of course - nothing at all. Most people agree…

I'm not suggesting that there's no room for developing and maintaining relationships. But when you're the CEO of a company with employees and/or investors, you need to prioritize and filter, and you need to recognize the important, worthwhile conversations from the unimportant, unproductive ones. Spending an hour of your time arguing with a person who doesn't want your advice in the first place and won't even tell yo…

The flaw with your thinking is you don't actually know what was important or worthwhile until after it happened, and it may take years for that to really play out. Some of the best employees and friends I've ever had came about through an unproductive hour or two, filled with argument. As much as we'd like to think we can judge interactions within a few minutes of them happening, we can't. The funny thing is, the same rule applies...to startups! When you try to compartmentalise and distill everything into a snap judgment you just end up making mistakes and missing opportunities.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#17

Post by startupstella »

I love this post because everyone in this community takes the Lean Startup truths to be self evident, however, the rest of the 99% still ascribe to truths that are unbelievably archaic. I see this all the time in bschool (luckily bschool entrepreneurship curriculums are teaching Lean methods now) as well as on matchist, where the #1 question entrepreneurs ask me when they submit a project is: "How do I make sure developers don't steal my idea?"

Generally, I know by this question that this person will not make it past that phone call/email because if they are so worried about a developer stealing their idea, there is likely nothing there/they haven't done their research/they are not serious.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#18

Post by startupstella »

duncanmcdowell wrote: post #10
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not suggesting that there's no room for developing and maintaining relationships. But when you're the CEO of a company with employees and/or investors, you need to prioritize and filter, and you need to recognize the important, worthwhile conversations from the unimportant, unproductive ones. Spending an hour of your time arguing with a person who doesn't want your advice in the first place and won't even tell yo…

Spending an hour of your time in a discussion which helps you reaffirm and/or challenge your own beliefs can be incredibly valuable.

Some of the most valuable insights/learnings have happened to me when I'm sharing advice with people. Often, I don't even realize I knew something until I've shared it.

Startups are also built on reciprocity- I'm only here because mentors took time away from their successful companies to help me. Now, I'm helping others.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#19

Post by startupstella »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #7
pitt1980 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEOs don't get 45 descretionary minutes?

When you choose to be the CEO of a company and you hire employees, you're no longer just working for yourself. How a CEO spends his time means everything to the company and its employees. I don't know how you would you feel if you worked at the OP's startup, but I would have a problem with the notion that the person ultimately responsible for making payroll found it worthwhile and enjoyable to spend 45-plus minutes d…

This is a very narrow view of mentorship. Mentorship is incredibly selfish: often the person doing the mentoring gets more out of the conversation than the mentee...case in point. Here, the author was challenged on basic ideas that led him to think more broadly about what he assumed was obvious. This could and often does lead to more creative thinking and applications in his company. As long as he doesn't do this all the time, I think it's silly to assume that a CEO should spend 24/7 working on a company. In fact, it's degenerative, unhealthy, and produces poor results for companies (as many studies show).

Re: Startup Common Sense

#20

Post by icebraining »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #7
pitt1980 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEOs don't get 45 descretionary minutes?

When you choose to be the CEO of a company and you hire employees, you're no longer just working for yourself. How a CEO spends his time means everything to the company and its employees. I don't know how you would you feel if you worked at the OP's startup, but I would have a problem with the notion that the person ultimately responsible for making payroll found it worthwhile and enjoyable to spend 45-plus minutes d…

Do you also object to parents reading Hacker News? What about doctors or nurses?
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