Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

docs.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 253 posts

Re: Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

#171

Post by koverda »

sah2ed wrote: post #119
asafira wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

THey mention a more nuanced metric further down --- do you still feel it's a poor metric?

Would you mind quoting the relevant bit? I'm on mobile at the moment. My problem with including it at all is that, as he said in a preceding chapter, he is in a unique position to shoot down myths that technical founders believe about VCs and the converse, so the book presents a great opportunity to do the same about the myth of closed tickets as an engineering metric, particularly since it is largely well-written an…

I believe this is the relevant bit:

" As we learn from Andy Grove, former Intel CEO and author of the book High Output Management, it is also important to define and track counter-metrics to provide necessary context, because metrics are sometimes optimized to a fault.

For example, engineering tickets will vary in importance, so if your engineers have closed the critical tickets, they’re doing better than if they close most tickets but only the easiest ones. Similarly, if the half of candidates that accept your job offers are less skilled than the half that decline, then you’re doing worse than the raw percentage indicates. "

Re: Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

#172

Post by adreamingsoul »

Nokinside wrote: post #93

Requiring proposals and updates written down is a good idea. If you allow people to bring up an issue or proposal that they have not already written up in the meeting, someone always comes up with idea on the spot, and tries argue it as something well thought. If they are clever people they can throw the whole meeting off. For the loudest voice in the room problem, speaking order that starts from the most junior and…

The junior to senior ordering makes so much sense. I didn't realize it until now how affective it is, and how I try to always encourage that in my teams.

How do you handle situations when you see a need for this but don't want to step on the toes of others? From my experience, some people react poorly to hearing that type of feedback or approach, and while I try my best to avoid those working environments it does happen from time to time. In those situations, I try to encourage, inspire, and explain why it's important.

Re: Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

#173

Post by iamcasen »

newen wrote: post #157
ErikAugust wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is a “dented universe” an admirable goal? Seems vague, and selfish. I get people want to make some sort of impact while they are here, but let’s also admit that that is driven by the ego.

Yes? Isn't making a dent in the universe what everyone is trying to do? What else is there in life? Just surviving until you die?

The purpose of life is to enjoy your time alive in this world. Typically one does this by connecting with other living beings and balancing a life in service of self with a life in service of others.

Will the founders of Snapchat be revered by humanity in the future? Highly doubtful. The way to be remembered is to live a life worth remembering after all.

Re: Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

#174

Post by iamcasen »

jcbrand wrote: post #133

> Agenda > > Spouse > > Connect- listen to each other’s day for 5 minutes each I had to laugh at this. Setting aside only 5-10 minutes a day for your closest confidant and life-partner? Good luck with that marriage. One of the ironies for me of people who slave away with the hope of scoring the jackpot, is that they often justify it by telling themselves and others what they'll do once they're financially independent…

Yeah how ridiculous! Loved ones should honestly be our number 1 priority. That work is so demanding of the majority of our free time while we are alive is a travesty. Work used to have meaning when we would hunt, gather, or farm. You did that along side your friends and family. Now we isolate ourselves for 8 to 12 hours a day earning money to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. And for what? Is humanity progressing? Is a claims adjuster contributing?

Re: Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

#175

Post by solatic »

rcfox wrote: post #108
arsenico wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You definitely should read the whole thing with more attention to this aspect - getting productive hours out of employees is an extremely difficult task, but it does pay off big time. This can be achieved with the "fun" environment at work, with meals at the office, with very clear goals and alignment on those goals, with a bigger ambition in mind, with creative compensation schemes, flexible hours, remote work schem…

I'm all for it if an employer wants to make it more attractive to stay at the office. I have fun at work, I eat with my coworkers most days, and I'm not out the door at the 8-hour marker. However, as it's worded, there's an implied "problem" with an employee if they're not actively engaged with work for 10 hours a day. Between meetings, chatty coworkers, meals, coffee breaks, and just periodic mental fatigue, I think…

> meetings

If the meetings are productive meetings and not hour-long Facebook-browsing snoozefests, then yes, meeting attendance is a form of productivity

> chatty coworkers

Get rid of the open floor plan, allow for remote work, other strategies to promote the proverbial butts-in-seats instead of milling about the water cooler

> meals

Delivered to the office

> Coffee breaks

Why coffee machines of whichever kind (Keurig, Nespresso, superautomatic espresso machines) pay for themselves.

The point is that OP's point is that good management reduces (not eliminate, that's impossible) distractions, to promote higher productivity.

Re: Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

#176

Post by rglover »

typeliftr wrote: post #24

I feel like there’s an ‘all or nothing’ attitude recently around starting a business which doesn’t make sense to me. Either you’re making millions and have 100 employees or nothing. I work in a company that has 5-10 employees, nobody is working their ass off and there’s steady income and gradual growth. Our CEO is not a millionaire, but he enjoys his work and the company he works for. There is no plans for fast growt…

I'd argue that a lot of people are just following the tune painted in the media and culture as a whole without thinking through whether or not that's what they want.

It's a real shame that building a company has become about racing to the cash (with very little conscious reasoning as to why) and not about building meaningful products, services, and teams that will be around for the long-term.

As a guy running a "tiny" company that just did a little over 100K in revenue its first year, I couldn't be happier. There's only three of us (two of which are contractors) and the current goal is to intentionally limit our team size to no more than 20 over the next few years.

Re: Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

#177

Post by kickopotomus »

ErikAugust wrote: post #143
fsloth wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One of the ironies for me of people who slave away with the hope of scoring the jackpot," There are other reasons as well to work hard. Some people enjoy the prospect of potentially denting the universe a bit. But yes, if financial gratification and financial gratification alone is the goal it's a tad silly.

Is a “dented universe” an admirable goal? Seems vague, and selfish. I get people want to make some sort of impact while they are here, but let’s also admit that that is driven by the ego.

Your phrasing makes it seem like you do not believe in altruism. Sure, perhaps ego has something to do with it for most people but so what? Bill Gates has made a lot of progress cutting down the spread of AIDS and Malaria in Africa. Does the fact that he may want to be remembered for it diminish the accomplishment?

Re: Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

#178

Post by jakoblorz »

xstartup wrote: post #38
typeliftr wrote: post #24

I feel like there’s an ‘all or nothing’ attitude recently around starting a business which doesn’t make sense to me. Either you’re making millions and have 100 employees or nothing. I work in a company that has 5-10 employees, nobody is working their ass off and there’s steady income and gradual growth. Our CEO is not a millionaire, but he enjoys his work and the company he works for. There is no plans for fast growt…

>> Can anyone explain to me where does this obsession with VC funding and huge growth come from? I feel like if you grow your company by more then 50% YOY you will end up with a totally different company culture, and you might end up hating your own company. Startups need an exit strategy. Employees want to work 5-10 years max and end up with millions to retire peacefully while working in an intense environment which…

Comment Of The Year HN2018

Re: Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up

#180

Post by segmondy »

jcbrand wrote: post #133

> Agenda > > Spouse > > Connect- listen to each other’s day for 5 minutes each I had to laugh at this. Setting aside only 5-10 minutes a day for your closest confidant and life-partner? Good luck with that marriage. One of the ironies for me of people who slave away with the hope of scoring the jackpot, is that they often justify it by telling themselves and others what they'll do once they're financially independent…

Wow, where can we get this easy disposable $10k - $20k ?
Post reply on HN