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How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

blog.vidyard.com

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Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#51

Post by oz »

mikle wrote: post #48
Swizec wrote: post #35

"Launch something" That's all you need to get a startup to pay for your time. Honest. Every time I launch something, emails start pouring in from people who are interested. Forget everything else anyone says, just launch something.

I don't think you can make such a broad claim. I've been working at startups for a few years and I don't lack job offers, but they come mostly from my past experience and industry ties. I've "launched" (as in created) two small web apps in the last 6 months and even though one has a few hundred users I still only got a 15$ donation and some interesting conversations, but no job offers. Not to mention I have tens of g…

"in the Israeli startup scene ties, not launching are your best bet at getting a good job."

Could you explain why?

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#52

Post by Swizec »

mikle wrote: post #48
Swizec wrote: post #35

"Launch something" That's all you need to get a startup to pay for your time. Honest. Every time I launch something, emails start pouring in from people who are interested. Forget everything else anyone says, just launch something.

I don't think you can make such a broad claim. I've been working at startups for a few years and I don't lack job offers, but they come mostly from my past experience and industry ties. I've "launched" (as in created) two small web apps in the last 6 months and even though one has a few hundred users I still only got a 15$ donation and some interesting conversations, but no job offers. Not to mention I have tens of g…

It depends on what you launch and where you get exposure.

Obviously whatever you launch is going to have to get exposure with the people you are interested in getting interviews/offers from.

But most of my Random Offers (tm) have included some variation of "So I've been reading your blog" or "So I liked that cool thing X you had on HN frontpage last week"

To the point that one such Thing X was mentioned by half the people I interviewed with that time I was going through onsite interviews at Google.

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#53

Post by Xcelerate »

kami8845 wrote: post #5

Wow, some really big mistakes... Explains why it took 5 months to get the final interview. >but I will put in 12 hours a day, 7 days a week until I get there. >Vidyard being one of them, even if I work for free. >I'm even willing to work for free for a period of time. Never, ever, ever do this stuff - Free If you say you're willing to work for free, that tells me one thing: You think your work is of no value to me. A…

> If you say you're willing to work for free, that tells me one thing: You think your work is of no value to me. And so if you think that, I will also think that your work is worthless to me. Instant turn-off.

That's not how I read it. Supposedly a work sample is the best predictor of making a good hire (I think maybe tokenadult posted something on that once?). The fact that he's willing to do it for free (assuming he actually does it) shows that he's very committed to the company. In my opinion, it's a positive -- not a negative.

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#54

Post by jacalata »

kami8845 wrote: post #23
jacalata wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, some really big mistakes... I've similarly been on the job hunt for my first job recently You sound a little over confident of 'the right way to look for a job' for someone who's only just getting your first job now.

Thank you. I've been researching job search related stuff for the past ~4 months (still stuck in a limbo during that time) and so I would say I know more about the job search than most people :) Especially those that have been able to just get a job out of university (I don't have a degree) or who are already so wanted that they don't really have to worry about these things. What I pointed out are mistakes whether yo…

Let's take this sentence: If you say you're willing to work for free, that tells me one thing: You think your work is of no value to me. And so if you think that, I will also think that your work is worthless to me. Instant turn-off.

As someone who has never even held a job, apparently, let alone hired another person, why would anyone believe that what you would think in this situation is in any way similar to what an actual employer would think? (Have you ever done or used any open source work? If so, how does that reconcile with your apparent theory that work done for free is valueless?)

Yes, my post is saying 'you do not have enough experience to make the statements you just made'. Ad Hominem is a logical fallacy because theoretically, 100 monkeys typing could have come up with the world's greatest business plan. However in practice, that does not make it worth people's time to read everything typed by monkeys.

I see from your other replies that you are using HN to practice sounding confident. Consider this as feedback that while it is sometimes valuable to sound confident even when you are ignorant, it is more often valuable to be able to understand when you actually don't know and what the limits of your understanding are, and on many occasions it is even more valuable to be able to communicate your own knowledge of these limits. Learning to use simple qualifiers like 'in my experience' will help you avoid sounding like an idiot and being easily tripped up by someone who hears your foolish generalization and says 'actually if you want to work in x, you pretty much always have to start by working for free'. Then you will say 'obviously I meant this advice only for y' and they will ask why you didn't say that?', and you will think 'because I made a bunch of stupid assumptions!' but feel too ashamed to say that and start blustering. You might as well say 'database x is always the best choice'. Of course, that is only my experience (from both sides) of how those conversations often turn out, you might go through something different ;)

PS: I am a 'she'.

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#55

Post by mason55 »

Swizec wrote: post #34
ajross wrote: post #7

Is this the end of the current startup era? How did we get from "Make stuff people want" to the current obsession with funding, SEO and "Growth Hackers" (!). This sounds like the same sort of nonsense I was reading in January 2000. Just like the 90's tech boom, the community has become inward-looking, stale, and it's feeding on itself (c.f. this article, which isn't about how to start a company but to be hired by a "…

Not sure whether I've noticed this or not, but recently I've become strongly focused on startups that align value with their users. Traditional consumer startups are crap, get eyeballs, sell to advertisers "or something". Screw that. If you aren't making something your users want to pay for, start making something else. That said, I think SEO and "growth hacking" can be very useful AFTER you get the basic "We provide…

Welcome to enterprise

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#56

Post by joonix »

michaelrlitt wrote: post #38
joonix wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article makes Vidyard and particularly "Mike" look pretty bad and lacks perspective and empathy. The fact that he's OK with ignoring personal communications just because they look like a "cover letter" speaks volumes. I don't buy the "I'm busy" argument. I've emailed people like Mark Cuban and received prompt replies in the past. Worse, he interviewed the guy and made him do free, unpaid work to further prove him…

You're right - I did lack perspective and empathy. I never thought I'd be the busy guy without time or energy to filter through and respond to every application we get. The problem that I've encountered is that at This post is designed to open the perspective of myself, the "busy startup guy" as well as Amar, the "I want to be a part of a startup guy". The idea is that everyone should go above and beyond to get notic…

I don't mean to be hard on you, I was really just ranting against this pervasive behavior, not specifically just you. I can see how this could happen. I just think we should all try to proactively hold ourselves to higher standards of doing business and employing people.

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#59

Post by Swizec »

mason55 wrote: post #55
Swizec wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure whether I've noticed this or not, but recently I've become strongly focused on startups that align value with their users. Traditional consumer startups are crap, get eyeballs, sell to advertisers "or something". Screw that. If you aren't making something your users want to pay for, start making something else. That said, I think SEO and "growth hacking" can be very useful AFTER you get the basic "We provide…

Welcome to enterprise

Not quite, I really like the idea of selling to consumers :)

As a consumer I pay for a bunch of (online) services that I use. There's bound to be others out there ...

Re: How to hack your way into a hot startup with no experience

#60

Post by epicjunction »

ajross wrote: post #7

Is this the end of the current startup era? How did we get from "Make stuff people want" to the current obsession with funding, SEO and "Growth Hackers" (!). This sounds like the same sort of nonsense I was reading in January 2000. Just like the 90's tech boom, the community has become inward-looking, stale, and it's feeding on itself (c.f. this article, which isn't about how to start a company but to be hired by a "…

  Michael was speaking at the KWB2B Marketers Meet Up
  I hopped in my dad’s car and drove to Waterloo.
Do founders usually prefer hiring someone who stalks them? Even if they quote: "lacked any and all experience we were looking for."

Don't get me wrong, I think what Amar did shows a lot of hustle, and his case on them showed that he was willing to learn and is passionate. But still, I think ajross hit the nail on the end with saying "I think the end is near." And I think that end will be when Pinterest has their IPO.

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