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Anyone noticing from these interviews that a lot of first employees are kinda just randos that aren't very impressive in their own right and don't stay at the c

by pw 10y ago

Anyone noticing from these interviews that a lot of first employees are kinda just randos that aren't very impressive in their own right and don't stay at the company very long?

elgenie 10y ago
Aston's tenure at Dropbox (four and half years) is "very long" in Silicon Valley terms in general and in early stage startup terms in particular. As for being "randos that aren't very impressive in their own right", you're zeroed in on a set of people who joined a startup before there was much traction, let alone profit, with almost the same risk as the founders but with less upside. That group is going to skew young and/or unsuccessful before they join and, since the interviews are conducted with #1 employees at successful companies, will skew towards having FU money for their post-exit careers.
- pw 10y ago
  I realize first employees will tend to skew young and/or unsuccessful and, as a result of being first employees, these people have FU money, but my point is that their success seems to be kinda random. There's no sense of inevitability about their success like you see with really great founders. And it seems like they never go on to do anything amazing in their post-exit careers.
  - elgenie 10y ago
    How amazing is the post-exit career of the average great founder? What if the success of the "really great founders" similarly has quite a bit of randomness involved? The halo effect and associated myth-making doesn't get applied nearly as much to employee #1.
    - pw 10y ago
      I feel like I've struck a nerve in some way and would love to better understand what's fueling your response. Why do you feel like you have to defend first employees?
    - pw 10y ago
      I think you might have a point about the "post-exit career of the average great founder" in that it's usually not that impressive. Larry and Sergey certainly would qualify as "great founders", given their level of success, and, while they continue to run Google competently, they really haven't done anything else (Google still really only has one line of business, after all). Whereas on the other hand, we have someone like Bezos who, with AWS, has created not one, but two ten billion dollar plus businesses and whose ambition seems to be boundless. Or, of course, Elon.

by pw 10y ago

Anyone noticing from these interviews that a lot of first employees are kinda just randos that aren't very impressive in their own right and don't stay at the company very long?

elgenie 10y ago

Aston's tenure at Dropbox (four and half years) is "very long" in Silicon Valley terms in general and in early stage startup terms in particular. As for being "randos that aren't very impressive in their own right", you're zeroed in on a set of people who joined a startup before there was much traction, let alone profit, with almost the same risk as the founders but with less upside. That group is going to skew young and/or unsuccessful before they join and, since the interviews are conducted with #1 employees at successful companies, will skew towards having FU money for their post-exit careers.

pw 10y ago
I realize first employees will tend to skew young and/or unsuccessful and, as a result of being first employees, these people have FU money, but my point is that their success seems to be kinda random. There's no sense of inevitability about their success like you see with really great founders. And it seems like they never go on to do anything amazing in their post-exit careers.
- elgenie 10y ago
  How amazing is the post-exit career of the average great founder? What if the success of the "really great founders" similarly has quite a bit of randomness involved? The halo effect and associated myth-making doesn't get applied nearly as much to employee #1.
  - pw 10y ago
    I feel like I've struck a nerve in some way and would love to better understand what's fueling your response. Why do you feel like you have to defend first employees?
  - pw 10y ago
    I think you might have a point about the "post-exit career of the average great founder" in that it's usually not that impressive. Larry and Sergey certainly would qualify as "great founders", given their level of success, and, while they continue to run Google competently, they really haven't done anything else (Google still really only has one line of business, after all). Whereas on the other hand, we have someone like Bezos who, with AWS, has created not one, but two ten billion dollar plus businesses and whose ambition seems to be boundless. Or, of course, Elon.