3 ms·
Fundamentally I think startups overvalue the risk of coming up with a product vision and undervalue the risk of executing on that vision. It's arguable harder a
by benmathes 16y ago
Fundamentally I think startups overvalue the risk of coming up with a product vision and undervalue the risk of executing on that vision. It's arguable harder and more risky to go from "lets make a social network" to the entire product that is Facebook, and a majority of the people that bridge that gap get relatively shafted on equity.
As to your point about joining a post-YC company, employees #1-#5 are generally defacto cofounders and are often given similar equity. I'm not disputing that. I'm talking more about (roughly) employees #6 -> #30. At that point you have a product vision, but no concrete product. Since the major work of a startup is discovering the details of what to build, a majority of the work isn't done yet, and the real risk hasn't been mediated. However, a majority of the equity has already been passed around.
The risk and reward are certainly correlated. To say for certain you'd need a rather complex economic analysis that factors in opportunity costs to really say what the monetary sweet-spot is on the founder<->enterprise-employee spectrum. My suspicion is that the startup talent market isn't very efficient; As an industry we haven't really found a good way to judge technical skill other than working alongside someone for months. This hurdle means all the good jobs come via social connections. All the good positions are taken by the founder's network, and all the great devs already have a good gig.
- abstractbill 16y agoI'm talking more about (roughly) employees #6 -> #30. At that point you have a product vision, but no concrete product. I don't think this is true, at least not for consumer internet startups. If you can't build a concrete product in this space with 5 people, you probably can't build one at all.
- frederickcook 16y agoIn addition, it'd be quite irresponsible to start scaling your hiring without that concrete product (proven, repeatable, scalable sales process).
- benmathes 16y agoIf you have your first scalable product with 5 people, there's a good chance that after you start hiring up to 20-30 employees (not just engineers), the market and your product will make large shifts. You'll have to rework and rethink your product after you start scaling, too.
- patio11 16y agoMy suspicion is that the startup talent market isn't very efficient I think this is true of the hiring market in general. "You made $80k at your last job as a senior developer? Super. Alright, we have to ask: FizzBuzz. Can you do it?" shudder
- smanek 16y agoI hate to say it, but I've interviewed a 'senior devs' who made six figures before who couldn't do fizz buzzish problems in any language of their choice (and many more who took >15min to do so ...) What's the harm in asking if it's a quick and simple discriminator?
- patio11 16y agoMy apologies for being imprecise: I was shuddering because I know that that question needs to be asked, not because I find it insulting.