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

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

#21

Post by gnicholas »

slilo wrote: post #18
gnicholas wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome's PDF printing function gives you an image PDF, even if the content is entirely text. So it's not searchable and is larger than a text PDF (which Firefox will give you). I've uploaded a version here, which I don't think requires cookies or block incognito: https://app.box.com/s/6mbbf3x1625uhcrm6t7tbld4jy1tnkjv

> Chrome's PDF printing function gives you an image PDF, even if the content is entirely text. That's not true.

Ah, it looks like certain content it now lets you print to text PDF. My experience is primarily with PDFs themselves, which it outputs as images (in my experience) regardless of whether the input was a text-based PDF.

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

#22

Post by BadassFractal »

denverkarma wrote: post #19

Side tangent, if you’re looking to share a draft book like this with a bunch of people, https://betabooks.co is a good option. Specifically designed to handle heavy load of readers and look great on mobile, etc.

Wow, that sound super useful. Now I just need to write a book.

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

#24

Post by typeliftr »

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 growth or VC funding.

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.

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

#25

Post by TwelveNights »

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…

To me it just feels as though the "get rich or die trying" mentality is something more alluring to people, whereas success stories from slow, steady growth makes more sense but is less hyped.

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

#26

Post by smt88 »

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 agree with you and see your point, but many businesses (especially B2C and high-tech) can't get to profitability without millions in venture capital.

Venture capital is high-risk and high-reward, and investors won't gamble millions without a chance for a massive return.

Massive returns usually happen at large scale.

If you want more companies like yours and fewer like, say, Twitter, then venture capital would need to be a charity.

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

#27

Post by chrisparton1991 »

I'm about a quarter way through this book and I'm enjoying it so far. This line, however, didn't resonate with me:

> To encourage 8-10 productive hours, serve dinner 8-10 hours after morning stand-up.

As a person who enjoys life outside of work, the idea of having a job where they were serving me dinner every day is baffling. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

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

#28

Post by askafriend »

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…

You’re on a website which is run by an arm of a prominent venture capital firm.

What did you expect? Us all talking about the successful McDonald’s franchisee in Wichita, Kansas?

You’re consuming news from a portion of the overall economy where there are high stakes, big bets and a lot of money involved. Outsized, massive multi-billion dollar outcomes are the name of the entire game.

That’s why you get that feeling.

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

#29

Post by denverkarma »

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…

There’s a lot more of the bootstrap stuff on Indie Hackers. Sounds like you’d enjoy their podcast too. indiehackers.com

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

#30

Post by askafriend »

chrisparton1991 wrote: post #27

I'm about a quarter way through this book and I'm enjoying it so far. This line, however, didn't resonate with me: > To encourage 8-10 productive hours, serve dinner 8-10 hours after morning stand-up. As a person who enjoys life outside of work, the idea of having a job where they were serving me dinner every day is baffling. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

You don’t have to eat it.

They serve dinner every day where I work. I simply go home earlier than that. Nothing happens. It’s quite simple really.

On days where I happen to need to stay late, it’s a really nice convenience. For people who go to the gym after work and come back to eat, they save money by grabbing a quick dinner meal at work.

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