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

Startup Common Sense

42floors.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 50 posts

Re: Startup Common Sense

#21

Post by jaf12duke »

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…

OP here.

In past startups I would have agreed with you. When I did my first startup, I worked on it exclusively. I skipped vacations. I skipped classes (I was in school at the time). I did practically nothing else.

I burned out.

The title of CEO doesn't define me as a person. I'm just a guy that started a company. I get stressed. I need help at times. I have things I like doing unrelated to my company.

Blogging is one of those things. I blog because I love writing. Writing startup stuff for the HN community gives me purpose to that writing. It's a sweet bonus that many of our users are on HN, but that's not actually my top motivation. It's just because I like doing it.

As for 45 minute phone calls to help a friend. I'll bet the karma gets paid back nicely. But even if not, I'm not sure I could I look myself in the mirror if I became so self-important that I lacked the time to be generous.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#22

Post by panabee »

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…

sometimes the easiest way to see your own flaws is to not look in the mirror, but to look at others. this also applies to companies.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#23

Post by galenward »

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…

Those who subscribe to the "startup CEOs shouldn't debate with or mentor others" mantra will miss out on working with some of the greatest CEOs in the world.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#24

Post by neovi »

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…

Personally, I think there should be more focus on when he did it rather than the fact he did it. If he was at the office doing this, then I'd agree with you. If the workday was done, then I can see an hour of his personal time being fine.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#25

Post by simonw »

thejteam wrote: post #14
pitt1980 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

42floors is a marketplace for office space - so startups are an important demographic among its customers.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#27

Post by AsymetricCom »

startupstella wrote: post #17

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 deve…

According to recent YC posts, we should be more worried about venture capitalists stealing ideas.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#28

Post by namenotrequired »

benologist wrote: post #15
namenotrequired wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

42floors are in the business of office spaces in startup hubs. To me HN, with its largely startup-minded audience, seems to be a great place for them to advertise.

Re: Startup Common Sense

#29

Post by namenotrequired »

startupstella wrote: post #18
duncanmcdowell wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Funny - often, I don't realise I don't know something for sure until I share it and hear other people's perspective :)

Re: Startup Common Sense

#30

Post by benologist »

namenotrequired wrote: post #28
benologist wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

42floors are in the business of office spaces in startup hubs. To me HN, with its largely startup-minded audience, seems to be a great place for them to advertise.

It would be very difficult to for any service to have no audience on HN, not because HN is relevant to whatever they're peddling but because HN has a large audience.

Startups pooping out startup-fluff advertisement-articles chasing that precious 0.x% clickthrough rates to their homepage is boring and a stupid 'plan b' for growing your business.

Companies that actually have relevance to this community have no problem getting traction here based on what they do - that's why we don't get spoonfed "how to be an entrepreuner!!!!!!" each week from Github, Dropbox, Parse, Amazon etc.

Post reply on HN