5 ms·

Ask HN: Did working at a large company, help you become a better entrepreneur?

10 points by adamwdraper 11y ago

jacobianx 11y ago
It helped me raise my tolerance of incompetent politicians.
codegeek 11y ago
Better entrepreneur ? Not so sure yet (recently struggling entrepreneur) but working at a large company gave me a lot of reasons to become an entrepreneur.
- adamwdraper 11y ago
  "gave me a lot of reasons to become an entrepreneur". I would guess that this is how most of the HN community feels (myself included), but definitely interested to see if anyone out there has had a different experience.
kuro-kuris 11y ago
Seeing all the things you can cut away from a process. It has taught me a lot about user experiences in a big corp context as well.
apryldelancey 11y ago
For me, I notice that I still have big company thinking and I think it has served me well. While I watch others in my field struggle to grab every scrap of work I position myself as a higher-end solution that isn't right for every company. Because of this my clients are larger companies. That said, I have a colleague that does what I do but has made it a commodity and is doing fine - but - has a hard time closing larger companies. And yes, working at a large company gave me a lot of reasons to become an entrepreneur and many examples of how to or not to foster a successful company culture.
Mz 11y ago
I worked at a large company and they were very competent at some things and that really helped teach me a lot of things by osmosis that I would not have otherwise been exposed to. They were marketing geniuses and that is something I learned a lot about that I likely would have never studied. They also owned their own award-winning print company, so I was exposed to world class correspondence materials, brochures, etc on a routine basis and I think that helped me develop an eye for some things without really trying. I know what quality looks like that in area. I have seen many good examples. It made it clear that I don't do well in a big bureaucracy. But it also exposed me to world class training and awareness of public image and some other things that have been very important for me. I was a homemaker for a long time. Figuring out how to interact effectively with the public did not come easily to me. I was pretty socially adept, but what worked one-on-one did not work in more public settings and I am not sure I would have gotten a good handle on that had I not worked at a large company for a few years. Trying to marry skills developed during a long period of having a very private life to goals of having higher engagement with the public has been an uphill battle. I really got a lot out of working for a large company, but I am unlikely to do so again. I am very socially conservative, so I really would have been thrilled if I had been able to climb the corporate ladder. That would have fit well with some of my default personality traits. But it really was not working for me. I currently do freelance work and am developing various web projects. I would find that a lot harder to swallow had I not learned firsthand that, no, I am not suited to climbing the corporate ladder. But having a job at a global corporation also did up my game in important ways, probably many of them things I would not even recognize as having come out of that experience specifically.
elliotec 11y ago
Not yet an entrepreneur (I guess I started my freelance business..), but I feel there are certainly lessons to learn from working at a large company. I mean, my CEO is an entrepreneur, so it seems that even just by watching some of that person's decisions and how it trickles through the company, I can learn what to do or not to do when I am in his position someday. But really the people that we want answering this may be too busy running companies to comment on HN.
- Mz 11y ago
  Your closing remark assumes a correlation that may not exist. It implies that working for BigCo translates to entrepreneurial succes. This may not be true. In fact, the data I know suggests that entrepreneurs are frequently mavericks who can't cut it in The Establishment and that is exactly why they struck out on their own.
NumberCruncher 11y ago
I don't know but lets' set up a workshop to figure it out!
davismwfl 11y ago
Basically yes. In two ways, it taught me what to avoid in business, like having layers of management filtering facts that are needed to make informed decisions. Along those same lines it taught me that many times that stupid ass decision you can't understand why the Director or VP or C level made, came because s/he was given half truths or partial information and did the best with what they were told. Second way is that I learned how to sell software and services to those larger organizations. It takes a totally different sales process and knowing that process is invaluable to getting larger sales. You learn through that process that enterprises are no where near as price sensitive as others are, so your pricing should reflect it as they will demand a lot from you.
- adamwdraper 11y ago
  I think most responses here echo the fact that they learned what not to do more than anything. To your second point, it seems that one thing big companies do actually offer is exposure to large scale, whether that be engineering or business practices.
a_lifters_life 11y ago
It taught me what i dont want, and often times thats more than half the battle.
vinayak147 11y ago
At a large company it is very difficult to try new things quickly. Flat hierarchy, smart people and great culture help but not enough to make a drastic difference. I have found it helpful to understand this from experience - as opposed to theory. Trying new things quickly is the biggest competitive advantage of an entrepreneur. A sharp focus on maximizing this advantage does make a better entrepreneur.
rajnikant 11y ago
An Entrepreneur needs to learn a lot, while I always believe that an experienced person can always conduct a better business than a fresh one but learning mostly depends on these 2 things instead of size of organisation. (1) Your Role in organisation : you should be at the place where you get enough exposure to learn new things (2) Your desire to learn : The person who is happy in a 9 to 5 job can never learn the things which don't fall in his/her JD so if you really want to become a good entrepreneur, you should be ready to do as much work as you can do to learn new things

10 points by adamwdraper 11y ago

It helped me raise my tolerance of incompetent politicians.

Better entrepreneur ? Not so sure yet (recently struggling entrepreneur) but working at a large company gave me a lot of reasons to become an entrepreneur.

adamwdraper 11y ago
"gave me a lot of reasons to become an entrepreneur". I would guess that this is how most of the HN community feels (myself included), but definitely interested to see if anyone out there has had a different experience.

kuro-kuris 11y ago

Seeing all the things you can cut away from a process. It has taught me a lot about user experiences in a big corp context as well.

apryldelancey 11y ago

For me, I notice that I still have big company thinking and I think it has served me well. While I watch others in my field struggle to grab every scrap of work I position myself as a higher-end solution that isn't right for every company. Because of this my clients are larger companies. That said, I have a colleague that does what I do but has made it a commodity and is doing fine - but - has a hard time closing larger companies. And yes, working at a large company gave me a lot of reasons to become an entrepreneur and many examples of how to or not to foster a successful company culture.

Mz 11y ago

I worked at a large company and they were very competent at some things and that really helped teach me a lot of things by osmosis that I would not have otherwise been exposed to. They were marketing geniuses and that is something I learned a lot about that I likely would have never studied. They also owned their own award-winning print company, so I was exposed to world class correspondence materials, brochures, etc on a routine basis and I think that helped me develop an eye for some things without really trying. I know what quality looks like that in area. I have seen many good examples. It made it clear that I don't do well in a big bureaucracy. But it also exposed me to world class training and awareness of public image and some other things that have been very important for me. I was a homemaker for a long time. Figuring out how to interact effectively with the public did not come easily to me. I was pretty socially adept, but what worked one-on-one did not work in more public settings and I am not sure I would have gotten a good handle on that had I not worked at a large company for a few years. Trying to marry skills developed during a long period of having a very private life to goals of having higher engagement with the public has been an uphill battle. I really got a lot out of working for a large company, but I am unlikely to do so again. I am very socially conservative, so I really would have been thrilled if I had been able to climb the corporate ladder. That would have fit well with some of my default personality traits. But it really was not working for me. I currently do freelance work and am developing various web projects. I would find that a lot harder to swallow had I not learned firsthand that, no, I am not suited to climbing the corporate ladder. But having a job at a global corporation also did up my game in important ways, probably many of them things I would not even recognize as having come out of that experience specifically.

elliotec 11y ago

Not yet an entrepreneur (I guess I started my freelance business..), but I feel there are certainly lessons to learn from working at a large company. I mean, my CEO is an entrepreneur, so it seems that even just by watching some of that person's decisions and how it trickles through the company, I can learn what to do or not to do when I am in his position someday. But really the people that we want answering this may be too busy running companies to comment on HN.

Mz 11y ago
Your closing remark assumes a correlation that may not exist. It implies that working for BigCo translates to entrepreneurial succes. This may not be true. In fact, the data I know suggests that entrepreneurs are frequently mavericks who can't cut it in The Establishment and that is exactly why they struck out on their own.

NumberCruncher 11y ago

I don't know but lets' set up a workshop to figure it out!

davismwfl 11y ago

Basically yes. In two ways, it taught me what to avoid in business, like having layers of management filtering facts that are needed to make informed decisions. Along those same lines it taught me that many times that stupid ass decision you can't understand why the Director or VP or C level made, came because s/he was given half truths or partial information and did the best with what they were told. Second way is that I learned how to sell software and services to those larger organizations. It takes a totally different sales process and knowing that process is invaluable to getting larger sales. You learn through that process that enterprises are no where near as price sensitive as others are, so your pricing should reflect it as they will demand a lot from you.

adamwdraper 11y ago
I think most responses here echo the fact that they learned what not to do more than anything. To your second point, it seems that one thing big companies do actually offer is exposure to large scale, whether that be engineering or business practices.

a_lifters_life 11y ago

It taught me what i dont want, and often times thats more than half the battle.

vinayak147 11y ago

At a large company it is very difficult to try new things quickly. Flat hierarchy, smart people and great culture help but not enough to make a drastic difference. I have found it helpful to understand this from experience - as opposed to theory. Trying new things quickly is the biggest competitive advantage of an entrepreneur. A sharp focus on maximizing this advantage does make a better entrepreneur.

rajnikant 11y ago

An Entrepreneur needs to learn a lot, while I always believe that an experienced person can always conduct a better business than a fresh one but learning mostly depends on these 2 things instead of size of organisation. (1) Your Role in organisation : you should be at the place where you get enough exposure to learn new things (2) Your desire to learn : The person who is happy in a 9 to 5 job can never learn the things which don't fall in his/her JD so if you really want to become a good entrepreneur, you should be ready to do as much work as you can do to learn new things