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Leaving Stripe

blog.gregbrockman.com

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Re: Leaving Stripe

#31

Post by aionel »

sama wrote: post #29
foobarqux wrote: post #3

What does it say about the question "Why do you want to work on this company for the next 10 years of your life?" when it turns out even the founders of the most successful startups in the world don't want to?

Greg isn't a founder of stripe. Larry and Sergey have been working on Google for 17 years. Mark has been working on Facebook for 11. Drew and Arash have now been working on Dropbox for 8 years. Brian, Nate, and Joe have been working on Airbnb for 7 years. Things change, of course, and you shouldn't work on a company that isn't working for 10 years. But I think it's a reasonable question to ask. If you go into somethi…

+1. Long term commitment, planning and patience is hugely undervalued in a 'quick win' culture.

Re: Leaving Stripe

#32

Post by foobarqux »

rezistik wrote: post #30
sama wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Greg isn't a founder of stripe. Larry and Sergey have been working on Google for 17 years. Mark has been working on Facebook for 11. Drew and Arash have now been working on Dropbox for 8 years. Brian, Nate, and Joe have been working on Airbnb for 7 years. Things change, of course, and you shouldn't work on a company that isn't working for 10 years. But I think it's a reasonable question to ask. If you go into somethi…

Personally I think founders should plan to do it for at least 5 or 10 years. If a founder doesn't think a company will be worth running in 5 or 10 years what does it say about their long term plans for it? Are there many examples of successful start-ups where the founders left within the first few years?

PayPal

Re: Leaving Stripe

#33

Post by dcunit3d »

sama wrote: post #29
foobarqux wrote: post #3

What does it say about the question "Why do you want to work on this company for the next 10 years of your life?" when it turns out even the founders of the most successful startups in the world don't want to?

Greg isn't a founder of stripe. Larry and Sergey have been working on Google for 17 years. Mark has been working on Facebook for 11. Drew and Arash have now been working on Dropbox for 8 years. Brian, Nate, and Joe have been working on Airbnb for 7 years. Things change, of course, and you shouldn't work on a company that isn't working for 10 years. But I think it's a reasonable question to ask. If you go into somethi…

the startup ideas i've been most committed to are the ones i'm passionate enough to invest a decade in.

Re: Leaving Stripe

#34

Post by dang »

foobarqux wrote: post #22
troels wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that either you misunderstood me or I misunderstand you. I'm leaning towards the first option. By which I mean - There's a distinction between the kind of interview that happens between a founder and an investor and the one that happens between an employee and an employer. I wouldn't be surprised if an investor asked that kind of question, but if an employer did, I would think it was rather arrogant.

They ask it of founders. I thought you meant the point was irrelevant because Greg Brockman wasn't there at the very beginning.

> They ask it of founders.

Correct, so it isn't relevant here. Please stop taking this thread off topic.

Re: Leaving Stripe

#35

Post by rezistik »

foobarqux wrote: post #32
rezistik wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I think founders should plan to do it for at least 5 or 10 years. If a founder doesn't think a company will be worth running in 5 or 10 years what does it say about their long term plans for it? Are there many examples of successful start-ups where the founders left within the first few years?

PayPal

PayPal was founded in '98, they sold in '02. About 4 years. I guess that meets my criteria. I'd think PayPal was a special case though.

Re: Leaving Stripe

#36

Post by wpietri »

sama wrote: post #29
foobarqux wrote: post #3

What does it say about the question "Why do you want to work on this company for the next 10 years of your life?" when it turns out even the founders of the most successful startups in the world don't want to?

Greg isn't a founder of stripe. Larry and Sergey have been working on Google for 17 years. Mark has been working on Facebook for 11. Drew and Arash have now been working on Dropbox for 8 years. Brian, Nate, and Joe have been working on Airbnb for 7 years. Things change, of course, and you shouldn't work on a company that isn't working for 10 years. But I think it's a reasonable question to ask. If you go into somethi…

I recently saw Carl Malamud [1] speak, and he said straight out that for his projects it has generally taken a decade to get somewhere. From his descriptions, it sounded like the first years were mainly him being ignored, but that eventually his continued presence meant people with power started paying more attention. His advice to the crowd was definitely to pick projects they'd be happy to spend 10 years working on.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Malamud

Re: Leaving Stripe

#38

Post by bcg1 »

foobarqux wrote: post #3

What does it say about the question "Why do you want to work on this company for the next 10 years of your life?" when it turns out even the founders of the most successful startups in the world don't want to?

If your question wasn't rhetorical, the answer would be "nothing".

Quite obviously that question is more about how you answer than it is about what you answer.

Re: Leaving Stripe

#39

Post by foobarqux »

sama wrote: post #29
foobarqux wrote: post #3

What does it say about the question "Why do you want to work on this company for the next 10 years of your life?" when it turns out even the founders of the most successful startups in the world don't want to?

Greg isn't a founder of stripe. Larry and Sergey have been working on Google for 17 years. Mark has been working on Facebook for 11. Drew and Arash have now been working on Dropbox for 8 years. Brian, Nate, and Joe have been working on Airbnb for 7 years. Things change, of course, and you shouldn't work on a company that isn't working for 10 years. But I think it's a reasonable question to ask. If you go into somethi…

I don't see how the question is informative, especially since the reframing is essentially "If you had a 250 billion dollar company would you run it for 10 years? And if you had a mediocre company would you dump it and do something else?". It's like saying that you will do whatever is in your best interest at any given time.

And in any case I don't think it would change much if an investor knew with perfect foresight that AirBnB would be a $10 billion dollar company but one of the founders was planning on leaving after 7 years (or even 4). The same is true if it was a $100 million dollar company or a $0 company.

It seems to me what really matters is whether the founders will stick with it for the first 1-3 years when things are toughest.

(edit: And Larry and Sergei tried to cash out immediately).

Re: Leaving Stripe

#40

Post by foobarqux »

dang wrote: post #34
foobarqux wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They ask it of founders. I thought you meant the point was irrelevant because Greg Brockman wasn't there at the very beginning.

> They ask it of founders. Correct, so it isn't relevant here. Please stop taking this thread off topic.

If we imagine Greg was a founder what would be different exactly?

(Also I'm curious, does anything I have said in this thread count as "gratuitously negative"?)

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