3 ms·
It's very important to treat people well. But you don't always have the money to hire the best people, especially if you're a bootstrapped startup. One of the h
by trevelyan 16y ago
It's very important to treat people well. But you don't always have the money to hire the best people, especially if you're a bootstrapped startup. One of the hardest psychological things about starting a business for me was taking no pay for a long time while paying others decently for work. Having an employee make considerably more than you is not psychologically healthy. I found myself having to guard against irrational feelings of resentment when going through tough times.
Money solves a lot of problems, and I think this is an area where funding is actually useful. Still better to grind through doing all the work yourself and not give out equity though.
- BerislavLopac 16y agoI'm just curious: what did you live off (food, rent...) while you were taking no pay?
- trevelyan 16y agoAlways managed to find enough to live and pay rent. Took a part-time job for two months at one point in order to afford to be able to move.
- all 16y agobump. Almost by definition, a healthy startup cannot afford the best there is. But I think what Dru may be getting at is to get the best you need. A few years ago, I had a project that blew through 3 dozen developers over a 15 month period because everyone checked out okay until they started to code. Then they'd crack and say "Oh, this is beyond my abilities". Ultimately, we found two developers that did the project in no time (and whom we now treat as well as we possibly can). We were lucky. I suspect a lot of projects sink in the mire of mediocrity.