Founder to CEO: How to build a great company from the ground up • Hacker News Board

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

#241

Post by xaedes » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 1:21 PM UTC

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #17

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

Yesterday Internet Explorer is today's Chrome. I moved to firefox few months ago and never looked back at Chrome.

We have firefox at work and it got so damn slow over the last few months. I now regulary just use Chrome...

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

#242

Post by subashp » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:17 PM UTC

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 havent read all responses above, so excuse me if this is repeated information.

To answer your question, you have to understand how VCs operate. How they raise money from other institutional investors, rich folks etc and how they need to return that money in a finite time (4-5 years) Everything comes down to money for that reason.

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

#243

Post by subashp » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:19 PM UTC

Amazing write up. I have been through it (now in a second startup) and can relate to most of it. This is like the book I can read as summary of my journey through startup world.

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

#244

Post by cncrnd » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:43 PM UTC

yawz wrote: post #233

cncrnd wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the expectation was for VC funded CEOs to take low salaries. How often do they sell equity in fundraising rounds and/or take decent salaries (500k+)?

> take decent salaries (500k+) Now, seeing this, I would totally settle for some "unsatisfactory" $450K. :)

Heh. I mean decent for someone who has the skill to pull lots of VC money.

They are probably good at rising up the ladder in some company, that's a reasonable upper management salary for them there.

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

#245

Post by justinzollars » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 12:05 AM UTC

siddharthdeswal wrote: post #221

justinzollars wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can you give more detail please?

Sure. TLDR People have different motivations. You don't need to "find a co-founder" in order to check some box in your application process. If you do feel the need to apply with a team, don't split the equity evenly and define a very clear leader. Also, Plan on most of your team just giving up if you are rejected (despite what they say today). I applied with friends who who I knew for a year AND had worked with on a few apps. I was surprised when they quit after we were rejected.

Your biggest problem is finding a product market fit and defining a customer. If you can do this you can certainly hire all the help you need.

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

#246

Post by throwawayqdhd » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 5:59 AM UTC

kirubakaran wrote: post #223

throwawayqdhd wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Great! I'd love to hear your thoughts on https://crushentropy.com/ (something I made for myself for this purpose) If you'd like to chat more, please email me. My email is in my profile.

Man I love this. Very neat! Kind of like markdown for calendaring.

If you wrap this up in a more 'fashionable' ux, you'd have a big hit

I'd love to just upload a text file with my entire plans for the week.

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

#247

Post by thecrazyone » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 1:52 PM UTC

majani wrote: post #214

xstartup wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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…

All the dreams you mentioned can be achieved earning anything over $100k per year in a company with good work-life balance located in a place with reasonable cost of living.

and where is this mythical job/ company?

In Silicon Valley, pay is high, so is the cost of living, reverse in other places. If your situation differs, you've got it good (unless you're in a bad job in a high cost of living place)

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

#248

Post by kirubakaran » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 5:40 PM UTC

throwawayqdhd wrote: post #246

kirubakaran wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great! I'd love to hear your thoughts on https://crushentropy.com/ (something I made for myself for this purpose) If you'd like to chat more, please email me. My email is in my profile.

Man I love this. Very neat! Kind of like markdown for calendaring. If you wrap this up in a more 'fashionable' ux, you'd have a big hit I'd love to just upload a text file with my entire plans for the week.

Thanks! :-) Please email me if you can. I'd love to discuss more.

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

#249

Post by manigandham » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 11:28 PM UTC

siddharthdeswal wrote: post #218

xstartup wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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…

>> Employees want to work 5-10 years max and end up with millions to retire peacefully while working in an intense environment which serves as the story of their accomplishment for the lifetime. Nopes, founders want millions by (ideally) using technology to disrupt a market and gaining from the windfall. VC want millions/billions by betting money on such founders. They both agree to buy talent by promising employees…

People get good well-paying jobs by not working at startups. Future money windfall is a very big component of choosing a startup.

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

#250

Post by OJFord » Sat, Jul 07, 2018, 2:53 PM UTC

memonkey wrote: post #163

I just want to say that I really love that they're using the pronoun "she" in the beginning. It is refreshing to hear when most business books are directed using male pronouns.

Completely disagree, that was a very awkward sentence, and read better as 'their' or even 'the' in that particular case.

'her company' for the abstract founder's business is just as wrong as 'his'.