4 ms·

Climbing and startups

19 points by yan 16y ago

mbateman 16y ago
This is a video.
cullenking 16y ago
The video was kinda lame, but it touched home because I love climbing, and so does my co-founder. There are few better ways to foster some serious trust than falling through 20+ feet of slack rope, knowing your partner is going to catch you. Makes trusting them with business decisions a bit easier! Not to mention some of the more isolated crags are fantastic places to chat about ideas and direction.
- yan 16y ago
  Yup, that's why I submitted it originally. Where are you guys located?
  - edge17 16y ago
    wow, thought it was just me. I just got back from Mt. Rainier memorial day weekend. No summit, turned back at the flats, but still had a great weekend. I'll probably go back next year.
    - yan 16y ago
      There are at least 6-8 climbers I've ran into on HN over the years, possibly more..
      - edge17 16y ago
        very cool. from a personal standpoint, I guess I can understand how doing startups and climbing can fit together.
    - cullenking 16y ago
      Nice! Just alpine, or do you rock climb as well?
  - cullenking 16y ago
    Sorry for the slow reply, finished my last final of my undergraduate career! We are in Oregon - I just moved up to Portland and Zack is in Eugene. There are a decent amount of great climbing, though alot of the cool stuff is out of reach unless you are comfortable leading trad.
edge17 16y ago
Saw Rodrigo Jordan at Stanford a few months ago. Really impressive guy, seeing him speak in person about his experiences and lessons was thrilling. Most of the topics are the same in this video, some of the content differs though. The talk I went to focused on some different stories than the GoogleTalk, but nothing's lost from the message/lesson. Definitely worth watching - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pd4SSgkuKA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pd4SSgkuKA edit: Rodrigo Jordan is Chilean entrepreneur and climber. Led the first successful South American team that climbed Everest, and if I remember correctly only the second team to ever climb Everest's Kangshung face (East side)
kscaldef 16y ago
Color me skeptical about this connection. IMO, if you climbed the way most startups operate, you'd probably end up dead.
- edge17 16y ago
  if one person does two different things, there's probably a connection. I'm guessing not everyone shares both of the things in this posting.
tmarkiewicz 16y ago
As the climber/founder speaking in this video let me clarify - I wasn't referring to any of the trust issues mentioned in the thread. I was specifically talking about the focus and clarity climbing brings and how important that is at a startup. While climbing you're 100% focused on the task at hand, which is unusual in the vast majority of our daily activities. The point was simply that when working on a startup, it's important to have a release to completely clear your brain of the clutter. I'd actually say the trust aspect is overrated.

19 points by yan 16y ago

This is a video.

The video was kinda lame, but it touched home because I love climbing, and so does my co-founder. There are few better ways to foster some serious trust than falling through 20+ feet of slack rope, knowing your partner is going to catch you. Makes trusting them with business decisions a bit easier! Not to mention some of the more isolated crags are fantastic places to chat about ideas and direction.

yan 16y ago
Yup, that's why I submitted it originally. Where are you guys located?
- edge17 16y ago
  wow, thought it was just me. I just got back from Mt. Rainier memorial day weekend. No summit, turned back at the flats, but still had a great weekend. I'll probably go back next year.
  - yan 16y ago
    There are at least 6-8 climbers I've ran into on HN over the years, possibly more..
    - edge17 16y ago
      very cool. from a personal standpoint, I guess I can understand how doing startups and climbing can fit together.
  - cullenking 16y ago
    Nice! Just alpine, or do you rock climb as well?
- cullenking 16y ago
  Sorry for the slow reply, finished my last final of my undergraduate career! We are in Oregon - I just moved up to Portland and Zack is in Eugene. There are a decent amount of great climbing, though alot of the cool stuff is out of reach unless you are comfortable leading trad.

edge17 16y ago

Saw Rodrigo Jordan at Stanford a few months ago. Really impressive guy, seeing him speak in person about his experiences and lessons was thrilling. Most of the topics are the same in this video, some of the content differs though. The talk I went to focused on some different stories than the GoogleTalk, but nothing's lost from the message/lesson. Definitely worth watching - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pd4SSgkuKA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pd4SSgkuKA edit: Rodrigo Jordan is Chilean entrepreneur and climber. Led the first successful South American team that climbed Everest, and if I remember correctly only the second team to ever climb Everest's Kangshung face (East side)

kscaldef 16y ago

Color me skeptical about this connection. IMO, if you climbed the way most startups operate, you'd probably end up dead.

edge17 16y ago
if one person does two different things, there's probably a connection. I'm guessing not everyone shares both of the things in this posting.

tmarkiewicz 16y ago

As the climber/founder speaking in this video let me clarify - I wasn't referring to any of the trust issues mentioned in the thread. I was specifically talking about the focus and clarity climbing brings and how important that is at a startup. While climbing you're 100% focused on the task at hand, which is unusual in the vast majority of our daily activities. The point was simply that when working on a startup, it's important to have a release to completely clear your brain of the clutter. I'd actually say the trust aspect is overrated.