5 ms·

Interview with Patrick Collison

77 points by arikr 8y ago

davidivadavid 8y ago
So the whole book is available for free now? Wish I'd known that before ordering it 10 minutes ago. :)
- askafriend 8y ago
  Yeah I also don't understand this since I pre-ordered the book.
- skipthemeat 8y ago
  It looks abridged though, or are all topics just a single page or two?
- arikr 8y ago
  I think it is, but it's a better reading experience as a book, IMO. I'd say plus then you get to support the author but knowing the companies he's invested in I don't think he's doing this to make money from book sales :) (more likely to further improve his already impressive deal flow, and to help others)
  - davidivadavid 8y ago
    To be honest I like books and was curious about the quality of Stripe Press bookbinding, etc. so I'll be fine.
bigpoo 8y ago
At first I read his last name as 'Collision' which would have been epic.
rajacombinator 8y ago
Eh. Smart guy as always, but I read anything on company building/management by unicorn startups with a large degree of skepticism. Basically, if you have a great product, and then exercise some moderate degree of thoughtfulness in company building and hiring, everything will work itself out. Every tech unicorn loves to preen about their culture, etc, but they’re all driven by incredibly strong near-monopoly products. They would have to actively try to screw things up.
- ta1234567890 8y ago
  Building any type of company requires a huge amount of active effort from many different people. The idea that a great product will make and grow a company by itself is basically engineering fantasy. In the case of Stripe, they've worked their asses off not just building the product, but also raising a ton of money which in turn they used to market the crap out of their product. Without that money and the marketing, even with the same product, Stripe would have most likely already failed.
plinkplonk 8y ago
I really like the fact that this book is explicitly addressed to (CXOs of / senior managers of) companies that have already found a product / market fit, and is now transitioning into a 'BigCo', which means that startup founders who are not going through that stage of company growth can skim the book, (as can people who want to remain engineers). There is a lot of 'managerese' in the book, which is inevitable given its focus. I still can't decide if some of the interviewees are actually insightful, or just happened to be at the right place at the right time, and are now mouthing platitudes. This book is really meant for people who want to be senior managers in a company that is growing like crazy, and want to take on the people and organizational challenges that result. Also the book is very explicitly centered around the "SF way" of building companies, and I wonder how much of this advice would apply to, say, a Chinese unicorn. (I think, not very much. e.g: 'diversity' as key focus area for the CEO seems to be a very SF centric (or at least US centric) way of doing things, and reflective of social and political phenomena in the USA. I doubt Chinese or Korean CEOs spend as much time on 'identity politics' flavored 'diversity hiring' as a CEO would in SF) So if you are scaling up a post product/market fit company in SF/the USA, and are in a senior management position in that company, this book is likely to be of great help. Even otherwise it is a good roadmap to how you can "live long enough to see yourself become the villain" ;-). The book has a different focus from many "startup" books and that is refreshing. Overall I liked it, modulo the 'platitude problem' I mentioned above. I really liked the interview with Patrick Collison, who seems to have his head screwed on right.
- GuiA 8y ago
  >I doubt Chinese or Korean CEOs spend as much time on 'identity politics' flavored 'diversity hiring' as a CEO would in SF There are many responses to that statement, but one of the most notable ones is that there are significantly more non American users of American software products than non Chinese/Korean users of Chinese/Korean software products. Building a diverse team that will be able to reason about how your product will be used in a variety of cultural contexts, by people from a wide array of different backgrounds, is therefore much more important in the former situation than the latter.
  - 8y ago
privacypoller 8y ago
Culture is a difficult component to define, much less manage. Everybody thinks they're consciously pursuing major initiatives to build culture but the vast majority are just consuming the culture that emerges and then reinforcing it with the status quo. Dan Shapiro has a decent take on it: http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/06/your-company-culture-is-a-meaningless-platitude/ http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/06/your-company-culture-...
spamizbad 8y ago
I've noticed a trend in recent interviews with founders and VCs where they lament employee entitlement and work-ethic compared to Chinese firms. What's the deal with this trend? I mean, look, you're building a unicorn: an individual engineer is likely contributing tens of millions of dollars of real value to your organization... and when you exit, you and your investors are capturing the bulk of the upside... why are you getting busted-up over tiny perks and engineers who work "only" 50-60 hours a week Haircuts and lunches cost you way less in the long run than equity and salary. You're making out like bandits.
- tlb 8y ago
  If engineers work 10% less, you can’t just hire 10% more engineers to make up for it. If you’re attempting something difficult, it might not happen at all with any number of engineers if each one doesn’t work pretty hard.
  - spamizbad 8y ago
    Which is all the more reason why you should be thankful that you can motivate them without surrendering equity. "Rather than make you a millionaire in N years, why don't we give you 10 free haircuts instead?" SV Engineers: "DEAL!"
- wand3r 8y ago
  To be fair PC gives tons of credit for stripe to the employees. Almost every interview. One interview specifically is how I Built This with Guy Raz with him and his brother John.
- no1youknowz 8y ago
  > an individual engineer is likely contributing tens of millions of dollars of real value to your organization... If that's the case. If as an engineer you can contribute millions to a company. Why don't you start your own? I'm sure each line of code you create will inflate the price by a million dollars. Of course, I'm being flippant. But the point still stands. Stefan Molyneux explains the true value of employees in a free market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYY11Ro4h54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYY11Ro4h54 Now you are entitled to argue against this and even dismiss this opinion. But go to your employer and demand one of the following:- - 7 figure salary - % of profit share - Equity in the company for your role in the company. Please let us know how it works out. I'm sure a lot of like-minded people such as yourself will be very interested to hear.
closeparen 8y ago
I'm confused. Why would your employees be disciplined and motivated to succeed, if not for their "entitlement" to the rewards of doing so?

77 points by arikr 8y ago

davidivadavid 8y ago

So the whole book is available for free now? Wish I'd known that before ordering it 10 minutes ago. :)

askafriend 8y ago
Yeah I also don't understand this since I pre-ordered the book.
skipthemeat 8y ago
It looks abridged though, or are all topics just a single page or two?
arikr 8y ago
I think it is, but it's a better reading experience as a book, IMO. I'd say plus then you get to support the author but knowing the companies he's invested in I don't think he's doing this to make money from book sales :) (more likely to further improve his already impressive deal flow, and to help others)
- davidivadavid 8y ago
  To be honest I like books and was curious about the quality of Stripe Press bookbinding, etc. so I'll be fine.

bigpoo 8y ago

At first I read his last name as 'Collision' which would have been epic.

rajacombinator 8y ago

Eh. Smart guy as always, but I read anything on company building/management by unicorn startups with a large degree of skepticism. Basically, if you have a great product, and then exercise some moderate degree of thoughtfulness in company building and hiring, everything will work itself out. Every tech unicorn loves to preen about their culture, etc, but they’re all driven by incredibly strong near-monopoly products. They would have to actively try to screw things up.

ta1234567890 8y ago
Building any type of company requires a huge amount of active effort from many different people. The idea that a great product will make and grow a company by itself is basically engineering fantasy. In the case of Stripe, they've worked their asses off not just building the product, but also raising a ton of money which in turn they used to market the crap out of their product. Without that money and the marketing, even with the same product, Stripe would have most likely already failed.

plinkplonk 8y ago

I really like the fact that this book is explicitly addressed to (CXOs of / senior managers of) companies that have already found a product / market fit, and is now transitioning into a 'BigCo', which means that startup founders who are not going through that stage of company growth can skim the book, (as can people who want to remain engineers). There is a lot of 'managerese' in the book, which is inevitable given its focus. I still can't decide if some of the interviewees are actually insightful, or just happened to be at the right place at the right time, and are now mouthing platitudes. This book is really meant for people who want to be senior managers in a company that is growing like crazy, and want to take on the people and organizational challenges that result. Also the book is very explicitly centered around the "SF way" of building companies, and I wonder how much of this advice would apply to, say, a Chinese unicorn. (I think, not very much. e.g: 'diversity' as key focus area for the CEO seems to be a very SF centric (or at least US centric) way of doing things, and reflective of social and political phenomena in the USA. I doubt Chinese or Korean CEOs spend as much time on 'identity politics' flavored 'diversity hiring' as a CEO would in SF) So if you are scaling up a post product/market fit company in SF/the USA, and are in a senior management position in that company, this book is likely to be of great help. Even otherwise it is a good roadmap to how you can "live long enough to see yourself become the villain" ;-). The book has a different focus from many "startup" books and that is refreshing. Overall I liked it, modulo the 'platitude problem' I mentioned above. I really liked the interview with Patrick Collison, who seems to have his head screwed on right.

GuiA 8y ago
>I doubt Chinese or Korean CEOs spend as much time on 'identity politics' flavored 'diversity hiring' as a CEO would in SF There are many responses to that statement, but one of the most notable ones is that there are significantly more non American users of American software products than non Chinese/Korean users of Chinese/Korean software products. Building a diverse team that will be able to reason about how your product will be used in a variety of cultural contexts, by people from a wide array of different backgrounds, is therefore much more important in the former situation than the latter.
- 8y ago

privacypoller 8y ago

Culture is a difficult component to define, much less manage. Everybody thinks they're consciously pursuing major initiatives to build culture but the vast majority are just consuming the culture that emerges and then reinforcing it with the status quo. Dan Shapiro has a decent take on it: http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/06/your-company-culture-is-a-meaningless-platitude/ http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/06/your-company-culture-...

spamizbad 8y ago

I've noticed a trend in recent interviews with founders and VCs where they lament employee entitlement and work-ethic compared to Chinese firms. What's the deal with this trend? I mean, look, you're building a unicorn: an individual engineer is likely contributing tens of millions of dollars of real value to your organization... and when you exit, you and your investors are capturing the bulk of the upside... why are you getting busted-up over tiny perks and engineers who work "only" 50-60 hours a week Haircuts and lunches cost you way less in the long run than equity and salary. You're making out like bandits.

tlb 8y ago
If engineers work 10% less, you can’t just hire 10% more engineers to make up for it. If you’re attempting something difficult, it might not happen at all with any number of engineers if each one doesn’t work pretty hard.
- spamizbad 8y ago
  Which is all the more reason why you should be thankful that you can motivate them without surrendering equity. "Rather than make you a millionaire in N years, why don't we give you 10 free haircuts instead?" SV Engineers: "DEAL!"
wand3r 8y ago
To be fair PC gives tons of credit for stripe to the employees. Almost every interview. One interview specifically is how I Built This with Guy Raz with him and his brother John.
no1youknowz 8y ago
> an individual engineer is likely contributing tens of millions of dollars of real value to your organization... If that's the case. If as an engineer you can contribute millions to a company. Why don't you start your own? I'm sure each line of code you create will inflate the price by a million dollars. Of course, I'm being flippant. But the point still stands. Stefan Molyneux explains the true value of employees in a free market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYY11Ro4h54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYY11Ro4h54 Now you are entitled to argue against this and even dismiss this opinion. But go to your employer and demand one of the following:- - 7 figure salary - % of profit share - Equity in the company for your role in the company. Please let us know how it works out. I'm sure a lot of like-minded people such as yourself will be very interested to hear.

closeparen 8y ago

I'm confused. Why would your employees be disciplined and motivated to succeed, if not for their "entitlement" to the rewards of doing so?