We are working in an enterprise now. We both are in same team. The pay cut is from the actual salary which we are drawing in the current company.
I have 10 years of experience and the other guy have 6 years of experience. I ll be handling product design, marketing, sales and investor relations. We both are going to work full time on this.
We are yet to discuss about equity. I want to make sure that I handle it in a fair way.
Usually, the tasks we have takes weeks or sometimes months to achieve. I think the best approach would be to break down these tasks and track them on weekly/daily basis.
This guy isn't working 8 hours a day and we don't expect him to work 8 hours a day.
I don't mind when person finishes his task in couple of hours and leaves the office. But, I am concerned when a person calls it a day after working for 4-5 hours without completing his task. 'Flexible timings' shouldn't translate to 'Flexible work'.
We don't follow any norms for work timings. We are flexible.
And I wouldn't mind if he finishes his work and moves out. But, it's not happening that way. I am concerned about others in the team who might be demotivated because of this person.
That's the challenge I am facing. We are very flexible with the timings. It usually works for us. We seldom find people misusing this freedom. But then, once in a while we come across this situation. I am not sure asking the person to stretch a little more will help the coarse. I want him to be motivated intrinsically.
Everyday, when I wake up in the morning I always have tasks to accomplish that are overwhelming. But, I make sure I complete most of them. I use certain tools and processes to stay productive.
1. Getting up early - I get an extra hour early in the day. This hour is very special to me as there is no distractions during this period. I use this time mainly to plan for the day.
2. Meditate - I use calm.com to meditate for 10 mins. I would call this best 10 mins of my day.
3. Prioritize tasks - I use wunderlist for tracking my tasks. I use pomodora to keep myself focussed on my current task. It also helps me to take regular breaks.
4. Read,Walk and Play - Some days tend to be productive and some don't. No matter how productive my day was, I will not miss reading a book for an hour, I will not miss my long walks and I ll never miss my playtime with my kid.
I was working with a friend whom I consider as a very good programmer. She had just joined our company. She told me that she was fired from the previous company as the company was not doing well. I was surprised to know that how a company could let go such a good resource. It seems she was in 'entry level' category. As the company was not doing all that well financially, they had to let go most of their employees who were at 'entry level'.
While it seemed unfair to me, she was actually happy about it. She said as the company was not doing well there is always a tension around as who will be fired next. And she was glad that this finally happened to her. It was then she started searching for jobs and realized her true potential. Now, she is getting paid really well. The challenge with the companies which are not doing really well is that there is always a knife which is hanging around your neck. And you ll never know when this knife will be dropped. Now that you are relieved from this company(knife), you should start feeling better. There are nice companies out there. You ll find them. Everything happens for a reason.
There is only a finite amount of time we live. There is only finite amount of time you get for your reading. You gotta make sure that you don't regret for spending your time reading some trash.
I follow people in Goodreads who has similar taste like mine. When I read something which are rated high by these people, It usually doesn't disappoint me. Now, ProductHunt has also come up with 'Books' section. I hope that will also help you in discovering new books. Usually, I pocket lengthy articles and blog posts which I ll read late in the night or in the weekends.
$12k might not seem to be a lot of money for many. But, from the place where I come from(India) it really means a lot. We are a team of two at concept stage. We have around $20k in savings. Assuming a worst case that we don't make any revenue for an year, we would need an other $30k for our runway. I was thinking about raising this money from F&F round. But now, applying to YC seems to make more sense to me. Though the money will not cover our expenses for an year, I am excited about the acquaintance we will be gaining through this program.