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Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

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Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#311

Post by marcosdumay »

pydry wrote: post #298
marcosdumay wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there’s a tried and true playbook that large tech companies quickly put to use to capture any remotely adjacent areas Hum... The reason why large companies have historically been unable to do that is because nobody in them bothers to do it, not because they don't know how. And one of the consequences of a series of mass layoffs is exactly that people stop caring about things like this.

Or, to put it succinctly - Google took off because Yahoo didnt particularly want to be a search engine.

Oh, Paul Graham (from this site) has a nice history about their ad-selling team in his articles.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#312

Post by lotsofpulp »

sheepybloke wrote: post #269
water554 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most insurance plans have an out of pocket maximum, no?

Generally it's out of pocket maximum to a point, like $250k. Then it's normally split, something like 80-20, where you have to cover 20% of the bill. That seems like a lot until you have something like cancer, where you need surgery plus chemo in the same year, which adds up quite fast.

> Generally it's out of pocket maximum to a point, like $250k. Then it's normally split, something like 80-20, where you have to cover 20% of the bill.

Not since the Affordable Care Act of 2010. It got rid of benefit maximums and implemented out of pocket maximum. An out of pocket maximum up to a limit is a contradiction. The situation works exactly opposite, you first pay 100% up to deductible, then you pay a proportion according to your copay, then you pay 0% after the out of pocket maximum.

Annual out of pocket maximums are typically $5k to $10k for individual/family at any half decent employer.

Legally, the maximums are $9.1k/$18.2k.

https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-li...

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#313

Post by lotsofpulp »

iancmceachern wrote: post #257
water554 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most insurance plans have an out of pocket maximum, no?

Yes, but it can be tens of thousands in many cases, and it does not cover many things that it should, insurance companies put deliberate effort into screwing people put of their claims.

The legal maximum is $9.1k for an individual and $18.2k for a family. At any half decent employer, it will be $5k/$10k at most.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#314

Post by kbos87 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #153
kbos87 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m skeptical that the same patterns we saw in the early 2000s are going to play out again. Last time, tech was in its infancy. There was a small universe of people who understood baseline concepts like getting to product market fit, how to measure and implement growth patterns, etc etc. Today these are practically household concepts, and they have been for years. There aren’t a few hundred other people in SV you are…

> there’s a tried and true playbook that large tech companies quickly put to use to capture any remotely adjacent areas Hum... The reason why large companies have historically been unable to do that is because nobody in them bothers to do it, not because they don't know how. And one of the consequences of a series of mass layoffs is exactly that people stop caring about things like this.

There's another set of large players who have sucked all of the air out of what could have otherwise been thriving, competitive categories with many players. Google with search, Amazon with eCommerce, Facebook with social. Yes there are maybe 1-2 counterpoints in each of these spaces, but they've largely been successful at leaving a lot of would be entrepreneurs avoiding these huge spaces because they know they can't compete.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#316

Post by egourlao »

PUSH_AX wrote: post #52

Am I missing something or is this literally "Displaced workers get new jobs"?

I mean yeah, that's one way to spin it. But it's interesting to observe the dynamics in the work force and how that benefits some smaller companies that were having a hard time hiring before.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#317

Post by UncleMeat »

rcarmo wrote: post #292
UncleMeat wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europeans work at all of these companies.

And they either moved to the US or are putting up with earning less than half what their US counterparts do.

Sure. But if you want to complain that europeans don't build these sorts of products as some sort of reason why they should expect lower pay, you need to engage with the fact that people living and working in europe are building these products.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#318

Post by idopmstuff »

achow wrote: post #301
idopmstuff wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm a PM and I think veeerrrryyy few people understand this, including many of my fellow PMs. Preach. And the universe of people who can actually do the work to start something and get it to PMF is a pretty small subset of those who understand the concepts in theory.

I would even go further and say that those who don't understand Product Market Fit but still can build, learn PMF by stumbling, falling. Same sports analogy- it is better to be someone who can play (but doesn't know the rules) than someone who has encyclopedic knowledge on the said sport but cannot play (physical limitations).

Totally agree. Someone who just understands that you need to go talk to customers and actually try to sell whatever you're building ASAP is going to fare way better as a founder than someone who learned what PMF is during their MBA but doesn't want to get out and do the dirty work.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#319

Post by vineyardmike »

nicenewtemp84 wrote: post #102
fmajid wrote: post #21

Many are going to start their own startups and the seeds for the next Cambrian explosion are being cast today, just as they were in 2001–2003 or 2008. That said not all Big Tech employees can deal with the hustle required at a startup.

When layoffs happened in the past, they were laying off old school enthusiasts because the companies just weren't working. Now, they are laying off people that went into tech because it seemed like easy money. It's not the same caliber of tech person.

I agree that tech today is much more filled with “for the money” types - I’ve been lamenting this repeatedly.

I don’t agree that companies successfully filtered them out via layoffs. If anything it’s the opposite. One of the “skills” that help you avoid being laid off is to be good at office politics and gaining visibility (so the VP making the layoff decision knows your name). That skill seems correlated with ladder-climbing more than tech-enthusiasm.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#320

Post by vineyardmike »

pydry wrote: post #299
NearAP wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't necessarily reach that conclusion. Big tech employs more people than startups, which means it's more likely for someone to get a job at big tech than a startup. It's just a law of numbers and has nothing to do with whether they're suited for startup life or big tech life. In addition, in the US, foreign students who just graduated are more likely to get a job at big tech than startup because more big tech s…

Some of them are startup people, but the ones who have ground through a degree and leetcode before landing a job maintaining an esoteric part of Big G's internal systems assuredly aren't.

I’ve worked at “Big G” and a startup - big tech is a much more sane place to start a career than a startup. If you just graduated, it’s a good place to learn basic skills before considering a startup job.

Google for example is much more rigorous with code reviews and code quality. They maintain a high % test coverage, continuous integration and delivery… etc. startups can’t maintain those same standards and move quickly. learn the rules before you break them.

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