If working for a company is so bad, how can you possibly convince people to work for your startup? Isn't this deception?
16 comments
How useful are type "a" people at all? Sounds like a kind definition of people lacking passion and the desire to grow. Isn't hiring them a recipe for mediocrity at any stage?
Some positions can't involve non-a people. You couldn't hire someone with world-conquering drive to be your 1000th recruiter at Podunksville University, Delaware.
Unrewarding work can result in stress and lack of energy.
There is at least an order-of-magnitude difference in startup-stress vs. normal-job-stress. Same holds for the energy needed to overcome it.
I don't know about that. I'm perhaps a bit unrepresentative since my normal job is also at a (later-stage, profitable) startup, but I found my day job is far more stressful than the startup.
When you work for someone else, there are a large number of factors that you cannot control. You can't pick your technologies: you generally have to go along with what the rest of the team is already using. You can't pick your company culture: it's already been established. You can't pick your market (okay, you can't really either with your own startup). You're stuck with the existing codebase.
All this is fine if you also pick up your employer's values and expectations. But I don't know any startup founder that's like this. Usually, if you're interested in starting a company, it's because you have some internal standards for the quality that you'd like your code to live up to and the ease with which users can use it. So if you're working for someone else, you can easily get stuck with your own standards and your employer's tools, and the two may not match.
This is really, really stressful.
When I'm working on my startup, at least I know that any problems I'm having are my fault. And I can fix them. If I don't like the quality of the code I'm putting out, I can make the call to postpone feature X and fix bug Y instead. If I find that a framework is becoming more of a hassle than a help, I can rip it out and replace it with my own code without my boss vetoing it.
There's a whole other level of stress that comes from mixing both day job and startup. Right now, the most stressful thing in my life is wondering whether I should quit the day job to work full time on the startup. It's stressful because there is pitiably little information and yet it's an incredibly important decision. I won't know whether the reduced time available has caused me to miss my market opportunity until I've actually missed the market opportunity, at which point it's too late. Similarly, I won't know whether the added time pressure has made me mortgage the startup's codebase until it becomes impossible to work with, at which point it's generally too late to fix.
When you work for someone else, there are a large number of factors that you cannot control. You can't pick your technologies: you generally have to go along with what the rest of the team is already using. You can't pick your company culture: it's already been established. You can't pick your market (okay, you can't really either with your own startup). You're stuck with the existing codebase.
All this is fine if you also pick up your employer's values and expectations. But I don't know any startup founder that's like this. Usually, if you're interested in starting a company, it's because you have some internal standards for the quality that you'd like your code to live up to and the ease with which users can use it. So if you're working for someone else, you can easily get stuck with your own standards and your employer's tools, and the two may not match.
This is really, really stressful.
When I'm working on my startup, at least I know that any problems I'm having are my fault. And I can fix them. If I don't like the quality of the code I'm putting out, I can make the call to postpone feature X and fix bug Y instead. If I find that a framework is becoming more of a hassle than a help, I can rip it out and replace it with my own code without my boss vetoing it.
There's a whole other level of stress that comes from mixing both day job and startup. Right now, the most stressful thing in my life is wondering whether I should quit the day job to work full time on the startup. It's stressful because there is pitiably little information and yet it's an incredibly important decision. I won't know whether the reduced time available has caused me to miss my market opportunity until I've actually missed the market opportunity, at which point it's too late. Similarly, I won't know whether the added time pressure has made me mortgage the startup's codebase until it becomes impossible to work with, at which point it's generally too late to fix.
This probably depends on the person. Working for someone with the loss of control that this entails can be an absolutely devastating experience.
An attempt an analogy:
Some people would find it less stressful to pilot a small aircraft over open waters than be a passenger in a large jet flying over land.
Some people would find it less stressful to pilot a small aircraft over open waters than be a passenger in a large jet flying over land.
they guy who draw Google's daily frontpage logos, sold some of his stock in 2004 for half million dollars. And he joined Google in 2000...
Working for a company doesn't have to be bad. For many people, a good job at a startup can be very attractive. First and foremost is the feeling that you are working on something that's never been done before. That's exciting and creates a powerful sense of community and adventure.
Sometimes a founder has the HR gift and can intuitively put together a team that really runs like clockwork and everyone feels it and wants to be part of it.
You can find that different companies can be geared toward people at different stages of their lives. If someone has young children, a startup can provide flexibility and insurance. Same thing if someone has already retired or is changing careers. That can be especially juicy because you're getting someone with experience who can spot problems before they get bad and let you know about them.
What can you offer your employees? A healthy safe environment where their talents are recognized and rewarded? Options? Community? A place to learn new skills and grow?
Startups are good places for people with multiple skillsets. Someone who can wear sales, marketing and backup code hats would never get the opportunity to exercise all of his or her skillsets in a large company where with a small startup would find themselves particularly valued and valuable.
You can definitely engineer your hiring so that everyone winds up a winner. I'd be concerned about working for you if you were convinced that working for a company would have to suck. What kind of environment would you create? How fast would your turnover be? What kind of people do you want to hire and how do you intend to retain them?
Sometimes a founder has the HR gift and can intuitively put together a team that really runs like clockwork and everyone feels it and wants to be part of it.
You can find that different companies can be geared toward people at different stages of their lives. If someone has young children, a startup can provide flexibility and insurance. Same thing if someone has already retired or is changing careers. That can be especially juicy because you're getting someone with experience who can spot problems before they get bad and let you know about them.
What can you offer your employees? A healthy safe environment where their talents are recognized and rewarded? Options? Community? A place to learn new skills and grow?
Startups are good places for people with multiple skillsets. Someone who can wear sales, marketing and backup code hats would never get the opportunity to exercise all of his or her skillsets in a large company where with a small startup would find themselves particularly valued and valuable.
You can definitely engineer your hiring so that everyone winds up a winner. I'd be concerned about working for you if you were convinced that working for a company would have to suck. What kind of environment would you create? How fast would your turnover be? What kind of people do you want to hire and how do you intend to retain them?
Working for a company is bad for you. Some people need the safety and security of a job. They need someone to tell them when to be at work and what to do when they get there. They may be dedicated employees, they may even be great managers, but they have no desire to take the risk involved in starting something from scratch. They crave the comfort and security that comes from an established company and can't handle the very real possibility that if that start a company it might fail.
I believe in small teams and people that has stock options...
I read something that could answer this on the hot or not blog founder few days ago.
http://james.hotornot.com/2007/02/on-having-balls-part-ii-staying-hungry.html
http://james.hotornot.com/2007/02/on-having-balls-part-ii-staying-hungry.html
Working at a fun startup is very different from working in some big company. Answer: make your startup a great place to work.
It's not deception. The great thing about start-ups is that we determine the company culture. With mine I'd like employees to enjoy more autonomy than in corporate where it's laid back and everyone has a voice for the direction of the company.
It is true that saying "Working for a company is bad. Come work for my company" doesn't make sense, but so what? I don't see people saying exactly that. Where did your question come from and where are you going with it?
provide him the ownership and when they feel they too are the owners contribution and dedication automatically flows and that is what bind them together with the company.
(b) For the earliest employees, it's more like being a founder than having a normal job.