"You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
metamorphblog.com
"You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: "You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
#2I hope people find this useful.
Re: "You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
#3I hope people find this useful.
I rarely look at startup advice; I've been inured to it after so long. But this was good. Very good. Thanks.
Re: "You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
#4YC sounds alot like the c-founder type you describe. it doesn't look that way with all the hype but think about it... ( like a good engineer) would google founders have fallen for YC's offer?
Re: "You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
#5I hope people find this useful.
Hey, this is a really good post! Also your startup is really cool.
If you want to improve conversions, make sure the speaker text homepage says something really specific about what you do.
Something like
"With SpeakerText, clicking on a transcript zips you to the right time in a YouTube video!"
It wasn't obvious that this was what you did when I looked at it.
Re: "You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
#6YC sounds alot like the c-founder type you describe. it doesn't look that way with all the hype but think about it... ( like a good engineer) would google founders have fallen for YC's offer?
Yeah, except YC takes ~5% while the annoying business c-founder type take ~80%. And I'd argue YC even provides considerably more value than most 'business' co-founders.
Re: "You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
#7I like the juxtaposition of "You need a Co-Founder, not an Engineering Bitch" and "Recruit college kids. They're young, hungry and don't need of a living wage."
Re: "You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
#8Caveat on the "hire college students":
You need at least someone on the engineering team that's experienced and has seen all the ways that large systems can go terribly, horribly wrong. Ideally that'll be one of the founders, because you'll have a tough time convincing someone experienced to join otherwise. But occasionally someone loves the product idea enough to commit.
Otherwise, a team of inexperienced college students is very likely to build a large system that goes terribly, horribly wrong. They know enough to write code, but not enough to avoid writing code, and certainly not enough to know when to trade off the quick hack for the elegant system.
I know because I was once that undergrad making a mess of things. I'm lucky; I've been able to work with some people who are very, very accomplished. But the time I spent floundering around on my own in college could probably have been easily avoided had I been working with someone who's been there and done that.
Re: "You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
#9Caveat on the "hire college students": You need at least someone on the engineering team that's experienced and has seen all the ways that large systems can go terribly, horribly wrong. Ideally that'll be one of the founders, because you'll have a tough time convincing someone experienced to join otherwise. But occasionally someone loves the product idea enough to commit. Otherwise, a team of inexperienced college st…
This is good advice. I once worked under a kid just out of college -- he had connections to the big bosses -- and while he was smart and good for the amount of experience he'd had, the system got really, really messed up under his naive direction. I quit out of frustration.
It's important to respect experience and ascribe proper placement to it in your organization. You want someone seasoned calling the shots, not a relative "newbie". People from college have a lot of theory and homework pumped into their heads, and that's fine for what it is, but your systems are much better directed with the pragmatism and practicality incident of significant real-world experience.
Re: "You Need a Co-Founder, Not an Engineering Bitch..."
#10Caveat on the "hire college students": You need at least someone on the engineering team that's experienced and has seen all the ways that large systems can go terribly, horribly wrong. Ideally that'll be one of the founders, because you'll have a tough time convincing someone experienced to join otherwise. But occasionally someone loves the product idea enough to commit. Otherwise, a team of inexperienced college st…
I agree. I'll go even further: hire only experienced people at the beginning, so that they can mentor college kids when you hire them (fresh new blood is always a nice addition).
If you can't convince experienced people to come on board, something is wrong with your project.