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>I spent nearly 4 years working on Workplace from Meta, so I’m familiar with building in this space. Some VC guy said this is one of the biggest red flags he l

>I spent nearly 4 years working on Workplace from Meta, so I’m familiar with building in this space. Some VC guy said this is one of the biggest red flags he looks for in a startup. It almost always leads to failure. I dont remember the exact reasons but something like it means the startup doesnt understand fundamental market segment issues and grit required to overcome them.

mikebenfield 4y ago
Sorry, could you clarify? What specifically is the red flag?
- vehementi 4y ago
  Presumably making your own Slack, or more generally spending time on things you don't have a competitive advantage at by reinventing someone else's wheel
- WJW 4y ago
  The statement "I worked on X at BigCo Y" does not imply that the person has enough knowledge about X to start a startup with. The problems you have when starting a new project under the wings of an existing company (especially one so large as Meta) are very different than you get when starting a new startup, so the experience does not carry over to the new company as some people expect.
JacobAldridge 4y ago
I have a similar 'rule' (advising to small businesses) - as a company scales from 1 to 12 to 35 to 120 to 1000 people [1], they move through different phases. So I see a lot of my clients in the 12-35 person 'Process' phase being excited when they hire someone from a 120+ person company, because of all the expertise they can bring. But that 'Strategy' phase expertise, often when they have a full team and budget to execute their ideas, rarely translates to a smaller business where they also have to roll up their sleeves and GSD. Sitting in a team building stuff for Meta is definitely a whole other ballpark to convincing Dave's Accounting LLC to give your Slack-competitor a chance. [1] https://jacobaldridge.com/business/the-growth-transitions-that-disapparate-organisations/ https://jacobaldridge.com/business/the-growth-transitions-th...

mikebenfield 4y ago

Sorry, could you clarify? What specifically is the red flag?

vehementi 4y ago
Presumably making your own Slack, or more generally spending time on things you don't have a competitive advantage at by reinventing someone else's wheel
WJW 4y ago
The statement "I worked on X at BigCo Y" does not imply that the person has enough knowledge about X to start a startup with. The problems you have when starting a new project under the wings of an existing company (especially one so large as Meta) are very different than you get when starting a new startup, so the experience does not carry over to the new company as some people expect.

JacobAldridge 4y ago

I have a similar 'rule' (advising to small businesses) - as a company scales from 1 to 12 to 35 to 120 to 1000 people [1], they move through different phases. So I see a lot of my clients in the 12-35 person 'Process' phase being excited when they hire someone from a 120+ person company, because of all the expertise they can bring. But that 'Strategy' phase expertise, often when they have a full team and budget to execute their ideas, rarely translates to a smaller business where they also have to roll up their sleeves and GSD. Sitting in a team building stuff for Meta is definitely a whole other ballpark to convincing Dave's Accounting LLC to give your Slack-competitor a chance. [1] https://jacobaldridge.com/business/the-growth-transitions-that-disapparate-organisations/ https://jacobaldridge.com/business/the-growth-transitions-th...