5 ms·

Why to Not Not Start a Startup

24 points by adammichaelc 16y ago

zackattack 16y ago
"...till the company has about twelve people no one should be telling anyone what to do. That's too inefficient. Each person should just do what they need to without anyone telling them." Yeah, finding a cofounder who is in "sync" with me would be amazing. If you wanna drop me a line, that'd be great. We need an OKCupid for founders, because I'd put "self-taught hacker", "into customer development" and "reads Hacker News" as mandatories.
- carbocation 16y ago
  That last one can be taught!
- younata 16y ago
  Darn! Missed the second one!
jpdbaugh 16y ago
"If you've had summer jobs in college, you may think you know what jobs are like, but you probably don't. Summer jobs at technology companies are not real jobs. If you get a summer job as a waiter, that's a real job." I just quit my summer internship at a technology corporation. I was hired to supposedly work on code but was instead black box testing hardware. It was the most mind numbing and terrible job I have ever had. I have had real jobs before in high school from washing dishes to being a bell hop. I used to think the 9-5 was the holy grail but it really was hell for me. I would much rather work part time doing anything else and pursue things on the side that do that. The point is though is that I don't think the way to realize work sucks for some people is through having a job as waiter. At least for me my first real 9-5 experienced scared me half to a nervous breakdown. The place was devoid of excitement.
- techiferous 16y ago
  By the way, company cultures vary widely. Some 9-5 jobs are a lot of fun, others are soul-sucking.
  - jpdbaugh 16y ago
    I agree completely. I think they few and far between though. I am young and experienced though so I could be very wrong. I just don't how great of a fit I am for it. I get bored very easily and I think that it was just the routine that bothered me more than anything. I think I am more of a burst worker. I need short breaks to be productive.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
patio11 16y ago
The thing that really sucks about having a regular job is the expectation that you're supposed to be there at certain times. That was, hands down, the worst thing about my day job. Regardless of the amount of work you have to do or your personal feelings, you will be in the office from early to late because employees at companies like ours are in the office from early to late. I don't know that "You'll be in the office from early to late because you'll love it so much you don't want to leave" is that wonderful of an improvement on this, incidentally. My favorite part about being self-employed is that I can say something nobody can say at a big company: "The firm will not benefit from my further presence today. Well then, I'm done. See you tomorrow."
- cperciva 16y ago
  I don't know that "You'll be in the office from early to late because you'll love it so much you don't want to leave" is that wonderful of an improvement on this, incidentally. Even worse: You'll be in the office from early to late because even though you don't love it, there's a corporate culture of "isn't this place great?" and you're worried that if you don't stay late people will discover your secret dislike for the work environment. Never been at such a company, don't plan to ever be at such a company... but I've heard quite a few friends describe their silicon valley jobs that way.
  - jpdbaugh 16y ago
    I am borrowing this from many people but its just illogical to believe that every single person in the world is best suited to work 9-5 and that everyone needs those forty hours a week to get the same amount of work down.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - mvp 16y ago
      It is definitely a legacy of the industrial revolution. It did make a lot of sense in a world where you had to be physically present at a place to get work done. It is still being practiced even in new organizations where it does not make much sense.
nzmsv 16y ago
From the article: A lot of people think we get thousands of applications for each funding cycle. In fact we usually only get several hundred. I wonder how many applications YC is getting these days, and if the number is now in the thousands.
- pg 16y ago
  It's getting close to a thousand lately.
  - cperciva 16y ago
    Is the growth of the number of accepted companies roughly parallelling the growth of the number of applicants? (I suspect it is, but you've only mentioned numbers very sporadically so I'm not at all certain.)
    - pg 16y ago
      I didn't know the answer to that till you asked, but I just checked and the answer is yes, roughly. The percentage of applicants we accept may be going down slightly, but only slightly. Which is odd, because I've had a definite impression that the startups we've been funding are getting better. If that's true and we're funding about the same percentage of applicants, then either we're getting better at picking, which is probably too much to hope for, or the applicants are getting better. Come to think of it, the latter is probably the explanation: the top end of the applicants are getting better, because we're now sufficiently legit that people who wouldn't have applied to YC 5 years ago are willing to. If that's true, it is in fact getting harder to get funded, because even though the percentage we accept is staying roughly constant, there is more competition at the top, where it matters.
cperciva 16y ago
Original discussion, in case anyone's interested: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6668 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6668
- rw140 16y ago
  Article dates from 2007.
s3graham 16y ago
How about "Enjoy programming, not dealing with pesky users/customers"? That's my excuse anyway.
- jonpaul 16y ago
  There's nothing wrong with that. A lot of people have that mindset. But think of the damage that you could do if you would team up with a cofounder is business oriented??
xiaoma 16y ago
My biggest concern at 32 is being too old. After losing most my money and tech skills working on a small business, it's going to take at least another year or two to get anything near the programming skills a start-up would take. And even at that point, how many founders in their young 20s would want a bald guy in his mid-30s for a co-founder, regardless of his drive? That said, I have little fear of going it alone without funding. Some entrepreneurs featured on Mixergy did just that.
- jonpaul 16y ago
  You can do it friend. You don't need a cofounder in their 20's. I'm in my late 20's and this is my third time. I know another guy who just started in his early 30's. The point is that it's never too late. You control your destiny. Each minute is a new opportunity to start over. Plus, you have experience which is hard to find. Good luck. Take care.
- mburney 16y ago
  how many founders in their young 20s would want a bald guy in his mid-30s for a co-founder If anything your age would be a benefit to a co-founder in his 20's -- the startup would be a good balance of experience/youth
- ahoyhere 16y ago
  It's not your age, it's your self-pity that's going to get in your way.

24 points by adammichaelc 16y ago

"...till the company has about twelve people no one should be telling anyone what to do. That's too inefficient. Each person should just do what they need to without anyone telling them." Yeah, finding a cofounder who is in "sync" with me would be amazing. If you wanna drop me a line, that'd be great. We need an OKCupid for founders, because I'd put "self-taught hacker", "into customer development" and "reads Hacker News" as mandatories.

carbocation 16y ago
That last one can be taught!
younata 16y ago
Darn! Missed the second one!

jpdbaugh 16y ago

"If you've had summer jobs in college, you may think you know what jobs are like, but you probably don't. Summer jobs at technology companies are not real jobs. If you get a summer job as a waiter, that's a real job." I just quit my summer internship at a technology corporation. I was hired to supposedly work on code but was instead black box testing hardware. It was the most mind numbing and terrible job I have ever had. I have had real jobs before in high school from washing dishes to being a bell hop. I used to think the 9-5 was the holy grail but it really was hell for me. I would much rather work part time doing anything else and pursue things on the side that do that. The point is though is that I don't think the way to realize work sucks for some people is through having a job as waiter. At least for me my first real 9-5 experienced scared me half to a nervous breakdown. The place was devoid of excitement.

techiferous 16y ago
By the way, company cultures vary widely. Some 9-5 jobs are a lot of fun, others are soul-sucking.
- jpdbaugh 16y ago
  I agree completely. I think they few and far between though. I am young and experienced though so I could be very wrong. I just don't how great of a fit I am for it. I get bored very easily and I think that it was just the routine that bothered me more than anything. I think I am more of a burst worker. I need short breaks to be productive.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

patio11 16y ago

The thing that really sucks about having a regular job is the expectation that you're supposed to be there at certain times. That was, hands down, the worst thing about my day job. Regardless of the amount of work you have to do or your personal feelings, you will be in the office from early to late because employees at companies like ours are in the office from early to late. I don't know that "You'll be in the office from early to late because you'll love it so much you don't want to leave" is that wonderful of an improvement on this, incidentally. My favorite part about being self-employed is that I can say something nobody can say at a big company: "The firm will not benefit from my further presence today. Well then, I'm done. See you tomorrow."

cperciva 16y ago
I don't know that "You'll be in the office from early to late because you'll love it so much you don't want to leave" is that wonderful of an improvement on this, incidentally. Even worse: You'll be in the office from early to late because even though you don't love it, there's a corporate culture of "isn't this place great?" and you're worried that if you don't stay late people will discover your secret dislike for the work environment. Never been at such a company, don't plan to ever be at such a company... but I've heard quite a few friends describe their silicon valley jobs that way.
- jpdbaugh 16y ago
  I am borrowing this from many people but its just illogical to believe that every single person in the world is best suited to work 9-5 and that everyone needs those forty hours a week to get the same amount of work down.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - mvp 16y ago
    It is definitely a legacy of the industrial revolution. It did make a lot of sense in a world where you had to be physically present at a place to get work done. It is still being practiced even in new organizations where it does not make much sense.

nzmsv 16y ago

From the article: A lot of people think we get thousands of applications for each funding cycle. In fact we usually only get several hundred. I wonder how many applications YC is getting these days, and if the number is now in the thousands.

pg 16y ago
It's getting close to a thousand lately.
- cperciva 16y ago
  Is the growth of the number of accepted companies roughly parallelling the growth of the number of applicants? (I suspect it is, but you've only mentioned numbers very sporadically so I'm not at all certain.)
  - pg 16y ago
    I didn't know the answer to that till you asked, but I just checked and the answer is yes, roughly. The percentage of applicants we accept may be going down slightly, but only slightly. Which is odd, because I've had a definite impression that the startups we've been funding are getting better. If that's true and we're funding about the same percentage of applicants, then either we're getting better at picking, which is probably too much to hope for, or the applicants are getting better. Come to think of it, the latter is probably the explanation: the top end of the applicants are getting better, because we're now sufficiently legit that people who wouldn't have applied to YC 5 years ago are willing to. If that's true, it is in fact getting harder to get funded, because even though the percentage we accept is staying roughly constant, there is more competition at the top, where it matters.

cperciva 16y ago

Original discussion, in case anyone's interested: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6668 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6668

rw140 16y ago
Article dates from 2007.

s3graham 16y ago

How about "Enjoy programming, not dealing with pesky users/customers"? That's my excuse anyway.

jonpaul 16y ago
There's nothing wrong with that. A lot of people have that mindset. But think of the damage that you could do if you would team up with a cofounder is business oriented??

xiaoma 16y ago

My biggest concern at 32 is being too old. After losing most my money and tech skills working on a small business, it's going to take at least another year or two to get anything near the programming skills a start-up would take. And even at that point, how many founders in their young 20s would want a bald guy in his mid-30s for a co-founder, regardless of his drive? That said, I have little fear of going it alone without funding. Some entrepreneurs featured on Mixergy did just that.

jonpaul 16y ago
You can do it friend. You don't need a cofounder in their 20's. I'm in my late 20's and this is my third time. I know another guy who just started in his early 30's. The point is that it's never too late. You control your destiny. Each minute is a new opportunity to start over. Plus, you have experience which is hard to find. Good luck. Take care.
mburney 16y ago
how many founders in their young 20s would want a bald guy in his mid-30s for a co-founder If anything your age would be a benefit to a co-founder in his 20's -- the startup would be a good balance of experience/youth
ahoyhere 16y ago
It's not your age, it's your self-pity that's going to get in your way.