221–230 of 253 posts
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A crude look at Crunchbase apparently indicates that 'one founder is best' and 'four founders is worst'. [1] Though it's not exactly a scientific assessment, the numbers do paint a rough picture. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/
Applied (and was interviewed) to YC with 3 co-founders. It was a total disaster. If I ever do it again I will be a solo founder and I'll hire those I need.
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 have successfully run a consultancy for fourteen years. This is very bootstrappable, but does not scale well. Conversely, one cannot make the next Tesla using one's own capital.
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How do you track it?
A combination of Toggl, Spreadsheets, and good old paper and pen. I keep a calendar that I mark every day as either green or red depending on whether I've met my threshold for a productive day (>6 hours of actual productive time - tracked using Toggl)
If you'd like to chat more, please email me. My email is in my profile.
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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 hap…
The opening opinion in a discussion is almost always the hardest to come by, so you’ll want someone confident with having a bad idea sink in public to make it, and that is almost never your junior employees. If you need a junior to senior round, to make sure your juniors speak their own opinion, you frankly have really big issues in my eyes. The key is to make an environment where people will share ideas and work on…
An interesting article; i was reading the replies to this. So here is my take. A UK 40++ entrepreneur. I have been there and done that - made good £££ from the first boom in 2000. Since then tried a couple of startups all of which failed, for one reason or another. Sadly we did burn through quite a lot of investor £££ in the process and gained no personal value other than experience. What I think I have learned is th…
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 thought, “The dry cleaner down the street he a competitor advantage by memorizing the face and account number of every customer. Even if they don’t scale beyond one shop, they’re an entrepreneur”
Single proprietor businesses generally don’t hire PR firms to hype themselves up. That’s why it’s not in the press.
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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 (Keur…
> 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…
"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.
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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.
>Love this quote. It’s been on my fridge for years, and I see it every time I open the door.
>"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." – Ralph Waldo Emerson.”
And for the post below by @newen, I had to dig up my bookmarks to find this excellent article by a high schooler[1a,1b] about Charles Stover, quoting from article:
1> Under his name a simple inscription proclaims him “Founder of Outdoor Playgrounds.” When I read that for the first time, I laughed. How could one person be the founder of playgrounds? And shouldn’t he get more than a bench?
He worked selflessly for the poor, marginalized and children and setup many parks and housing facilities.
2>So why has Stover been forgotten? Although a prominent and influential figure, he did not seek fame or fortune. In a letter to a friend in 1927, he wrote, “My real preference is to be writ in water — just such complete obliteration as the poet Keats feared would be his fate.” He never married and kept no house of his own, preferring instead to live at University Settlement. He was a very private person, prone to bouts of depression, and was known to vanish occasionally with no explanation.
"On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club "
Eventually history will forget us all, IMHO instead of optimizing for global immortality we should strive locally to serve those around us as best as we can.
I am reminded one of the last scenes of the Godfather 3,the retired mafia boss,an old Michael Corleone is seen contemplating life{?) on a wheel chair, when suddenly he slumps and dies, possibly regretting all the violence and wrongs heaped on others.
I suspect on one's death throes, no one contemplates on wealth,fame or power they acquired in their lifetime but whether has their life been meaningful or made a difference for the better. Just my thoughts.
[0] https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/992765968182001665
[1a] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/opinion/charles-stover-pl...
[1b] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15111433
Edit: formatting
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>> 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…
Actually, the most refreshing, zero bullshit thing I’ve read in a while.