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Working at a startup sucks
- proee 16y agoSensational link-bait title. A better title would be "Working at a startup is hard"
- redrobot5050 16y agoHere's an idea: Start a website where you suggest to bloggers a better title for their blog posts. Seriously, I think the whole blogosphere could better counter one another's hype through your solid, middle of the road editorializing.
- amackera 16y agoThis might be a fun weekend project, heh.
- axod 16y agoIt sure can suck, but it's all choices. You don't have to get investment, don't have to hire employees. You can do consulting on the side so you're not poor. You can even take holidays if you plan for it. So a lot of it is just down to planning. It's pretty similar to having a baby I think. It can suck sometimes, but it's pretty much the best experience you can ever have. Good luck for the release in Sept :)
- laurentk 16y agoHi Axod, Yes, it's down to planning and foreseeing, true. And there's two reason I wrote that post like this: 1) to poke the bear, and specifically address the young aspiring entrepreneurs who only read about the good side of it. 2) not hiring, doing consulting on the side, not getting investment is a great way to go, the 37 signals way. we chose the other alternative to get where we wanna go faster. future will tell if we were right :)) Anyway thx for the comment, and finger crossed for the sept release :)
- bhellman1 16y agoIf it's been that painful perhaps that's a sign that the current idea isn't a great one.
- edw519 16y agoWorking at a startup sucks So does pushing a cart, to a horse. The problem is that OP has it backwards. He complains about how hard it is to do all the things you don't have to do. You don't have to endure multiple "No's" finding investment; you can bootstrap or use friends and family. You don't have to endure multiple "No's" trying to convince clients to accept your offering. You can find out what they need and build that. You don't have to hire. If Version 1.0 of what you're building can't be built by one or two people, you may want to rethink what you're doing. Starting a business and building software is tough enough when you do first things first. No need to pile on.
- laurentk 16y agoHey Edward, We're at v2, or stage 2. Hacked a small prototype to test user feedback, spoke to potential clients to get their "reception" to the idea, built it ourselves, ... And then and only then, when it passed these tests we went "serious". But you're right on on all your point indeed !
- metachris 16y agoThe author also mentions that negative things or problems are almost never blogged about. I guess thats at least partially because the founders are busy fixing things and have not enough time / patience to blog about it. Positive blogs can be seen as marketing efforts and justify taking half a day off for it, but do negative ones too?
- laurentk 16y agoHey Chris, I'm the author. That was exactly the point, fed up of reading the "it's fantastic, we rock !!" posts. So just an honest feedback on our first 6 months on my 3rd startup ....
- apu 16y agoSo in the spirit of the article, what would you say are negative things about running a startup for you? Or is it all roses?
- chc 16y ago
- patio11 16y agoThe more I think about this the more I think that the startup community has evolved a peculiar brand of hazing, in which small groups of diverse young men attempt to forge powerful emotional connections for pursuing mutual goals by subjecting themselves to absolutely unnecessary and artificial torment and humiliation. The hazing is then paraded around as a badge of perverse pride -- a mix of "we're tougher than anyone else" and "nobody else really understands us, because no one else has gone through it."
- mechanical_fish 16y agoI agree, but I don't think that this pattern is peculiar, nor is it restricted to the startup community. It's a very common pattern in tech, in big companies and academia as well as startups. I assume that this attitude is a big part of the culture that keeps game developers going, for example. And it extends to other fields. The finance guys on Wall Street and the Chicago Board of Trade do it. Lawyers do it. Medical interns do it.
- pmjordan 16y agoYep, I've experienced it first-hand in the game industry - it's bizarre when it feels like you're the only one who notices what's really going on. But especially in the startup world it seems like you're pretty free not to go down that route. But maybe once you've had your fair share of failure it's the only thing left you feel you can be somewhat proud of, so you cling to it.
- Psyonic 16y agoI imagine startups (especially when you're watching your money shrinking every day) can induce desperation, and when you're desperate, working crazy hours seems logical. You feel like the world is closing in around you... you have to do something
- Psyonic 16y agoI think minor forms of hazing can play an important role in teams. It is important to know how your teammates, coworkers, etc, will react when the shit hits the fan, and artificially inducing a similar situation can be a useful indicator. This can go too far, certainly, but lets not discount it completely offhand.
- aminuit 16y agoIn summary, hard work is hard. I know HN is targeted towards the startup crowd, but do we constantly have to vote up these self-aggrandizing, self-congratulating posts about how it takes some kind of special breed of human to work hard for a year or two?
- laurentk 16y agoHey aminuit The post isn't especially self-congratulating. Actually it's almost the contrary... Hard work is hard, whether you're a pin pusher, an agile railer or biz guy trying to make it. The idea behind the post is especially this: we are ordinary man facing ordinary (hard) challenges, and it's meant as a reminder for aspiring entrepreneurs who only see the bright techcrunch-like side of the coin. Thoughts?
- EasyCompany 16y agoBring on the 4hr work week.
- dashr 16y agoYou're totally right, the daily slog is tough, but the spurts of success or the rush of failure make it worthwhile. If we wanted safety, we'd get a 9 to 5.
- yayitswei 16y agoI think he's focusing on all the hardships instead of why he's doing it in the first place. Working at a startup is a choice.
- amackera 16y agoIt's a choice that many people trivialize. The point of the post was, I think, a bit of a warning to think about startup life seriously before diving in.