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> Unless you are building a lifestyle business, you do not have a successful company until your small team is on fire. I was a "founding employee" of a very su

by birken 10y ago

> Unless you are building a lifestyle business, you do not have a successful company until your small team is on fire. I was a "founding employee" of a very successful company and I don't think I would have ever classified anything as being "on fire". I also slept 8+ hours a night because I like sleeping and never worked on the weekends because I like enjoying weekends. The company did well because when everybody came to work they were ready to come up with great ideas and execute them quickly. I don't think your comment is complete off-base, I've met a lot of people who "play startup" and spend time doing things that aren't actually helpful to their company but feel like they are (going to conferences, perpetually talking to investors, etc). These people probably aren't going to be successful. However, it also isn't true that the only way to succeed is to ignore everything else in your life and devote yourself fully to your startup. I'm not saying that you shouldn't work 80-100 hours at your startup if you want to. If that is bringing you personal satisfaction and you are efficient at it than more power to you. But that lifestyle is not a requirement for startup success.

tyre 10y ago
I (personally) think there is a significant difference between a founder of an early-stage startup and employees. The best equivalent is parents of a newborn. Do you get to not feed your baby to preserve work/life balance? No, because its survival depends on you. You do whatever it takes. That doesn't always mean working 80+ hours per week. Sometimes it means a vacation to preserve sanity, but there is a certain bar (and a high one, at that) for being a good parent. Once things stable out, you can start to diversify your life. But until then, there are so many things constantly going wrong or unknown. That may be an unnecessary pressure I put on myself, but my bar for starting a company is "all in." It's just too hard, with too small of a likelihood of success, to waste time half/90%-assing.
- birken 10y ago
  That's great if that belief motivates you to work hard on your company. Whatever makes you happy. Your advice just isn't as broadly applicable as you think it is. Companies never really "stable out." In my experience the bigger and more successful the company got, the harder it was. More people to manage, more people depending on the company's success, endless recruiting, etc. The goalposts are always going to move too. You are going to think "oh, once we just get to this milestone everything will be great". Then you'll reach that milestone and you won't even care because there will be something new you want to achieve. Over and over again. Companies are good at sucking you in and taking over your whole life. That is why the advice that the company must take over your life is so wrong. You should try to be in a softball league and force yourself to take vacations, because you are going to be more efficient and happier that way. I wouldn't be surprised if the two biggest causes of startup failure are burn out and/or stress-related founder break ups. In retrospect, I think the biggest challenge in the early years of what ended up being a very successful company was staying motivated and positive through the 2.5-3 years it took to get any sort of serious traction. It's really hard to work at something for so long and have very little tangible success to show for it. Things that distract you from the sad reality and help you push through are your friends, not your enemies.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

by birken 10y ago

tyre 10y ago

I (personally) think there is a significant difference between a founder of an early-stage startup and employees. The best equivalent is parents of a newborn. Do you get to not feed your baby to preserve work/life balance? No, because its survival depends on you. You do whatever it takes. That doesn't always mean working 80+ hours per week. Sometimes it means a vacation to preserve sanity, but there is a certain bar (and a high one, at that) for being a good parent. Once things stable out, you can start to diversify your life. But until then, there are so many things constantly going wrong or unknown. That may be an unnecessary pressure I put on myself, but my bar for starting a company is "all in." It's just too hard, with too small of a likelihood of success, to waste time half/90%-assing.

birken 10y ago
That's great if that belief motivates you to work hard on your company. Whatever makes you happy. Your advice just isn't as broadly applicable as you think it is. Companies never really "stable out." In my experience the bigger and more successful the company got, the harder it was. More people to manage, more people depending on the company's success, endless recruiting, etc. The goalposts are always going to move too. You are going to think "oh, once we just get to this milestone everything will be great". Then you'll reach that milestone and you won't even care because there will be something new you want to achieve. Over and over again. Companies are good at sucking you in and taking over your whole life. That is why the advice that the company must take over your life is so wrong. You should try to be in a softball league and force yourself to take vacations, because you are going to be more efficient and happier that way. I wouldn't be surprised if the two biggest causes of startup failure are burn out and/or stress-related founder break ups. In retrospect, I think the biggest challenge in the early years of what ended up being a very successful company was staying motivated and positive through the 2.5-3 years it took to get any sort of serious traction. It's really hard to work at something for so long and have very little tangible success to show for it. Things that distract you from the sad reality and help you push through are your friends, not your enemies.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]