5 ms·
startup-wise: 1. working as employee #6 at a startup in boston instead of google in 2001. 2. working as employee #6 at a startup in SF instead of youtube in 2
by menloparkbum 18y ago
startup-wise:
1. working as employee #6 at a startup in boston instead of google in 2001.
2. working as employee #6 at a startup in SF instead of youtube in 2005.
whoops!
- helveticaman 18y agoI feel for you, dude...I hope there's no number 3 next time someone asks you this question.
- mrtron 18y agoI hope he doesn't decide to go anywhere again as employee #6. I am not normally superstitious, but I would avoid that like the plague going forward. 'Oh you currently have 5 employees? That is too bad...' :)
- helveticaman 18y agoTotally. It wouldn't be pure superstition either; a 6th employee commands a certain amount of stock, a certain amount of wages, and is hired at a certain stage.
- prakash 18y agoAt that point in time, where the other 2 startup ideas less/more crazy than google/yahoo?
- menloparkbum 18y agoGoogle was obviously a good company at the time. I just thought being #6 at this other startup would leave me better off financially than being employee 300-something at Google. Not the case. In regards to YouTube, I was actually doing work for a YouTube competitor at the time. They sold their tech early to another YouTube competitor, but since I was a contract employee, not a founder, I didn't make any money off of the sale.
- prakash 18y agoSo how do you evaluate and incorporate that magic factor when making the decision on which startup to join? The regular factors being a combination of market, people, product, personal value and financial?
- babul 18y agoThird time lucky? At least you had the courage to work at various startups, even if they failed, which is more than most.
- bigbang 18y agoYeah, I do feel for you. But I wouldn't consider this a mistake. I mean what if the startup you worked had become big. Its easy to say in hindsight. Like they say in stocks - "You are always wise, the next day"
- dats 18y agoThis reminds me of Brian Lent. He sort of missed out on both Yahoo and Google. http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-22-n20.html http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-22-n20.html. Edit: some choice quotes. "When Filo asked Lent if he would like to join Yahoo! as employee No. 1, in order to keep the founders on their toes with his skepticism, he laughed. 'You couldn’t pay me enough money to work for a company called Yahoo!' he recalls saying at the time." "In early 1996, Lent explains, “We all said, ’There will never be another Yahoo!’”"
- ChaitanyaSai 18y agoOuch! However, this counts as a risk with a not-so-fortunate outcome right? For most people, a mistake would be the gap between the risks they took and their innate risk-taking ability. In startupspeak, there's nothing wrong with a steady job if you aren't an adrenalin junkie, and there's nothing wrong with multiple bombed ventures if you are.