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Contra a lot of popular belief here: I don’t understand how working as an engineer (because this is always what seems to be implied) will improve your odds at s

by hcks 4y ago

Contra a lot of popular belief here: I don’t understand how working as an engineer (because this is always what seems to be implied) will improve your odds at starting a startup. Working as an engineer, and kickstarting a business are two very different jobs. Even in practice successful tech startup founders seems to be 40 yos with a background in management consulting. So I really wonder where do people get the idea that working as an engineer is a path towards entrepreneurship. EDIT: and it’s rather ironic that the author doesn’t himself run his own startup.

lawrjone 4y ago
I'm not sure most successful tech start-up founders have management consultant backgrounds, I've not seen that at least! Speaking to the point about not having been a founder myself: you're right, and hope I was clear about that in the article. But I have spent the last year as the first employee working on building out a start-up, where a big challenge is in establishing a team and learning how to build a product that people want to buy. When you build a start-up as a founder, you need to know how to do that stuff. Otherwise there won't be much point in being good at the founder-specific work like raising money etc, because there's not a business around it. The main point is to try to minimise the 'firsts' you might have when you start your own company. If the only thing you're doing for the first time is exclusively founder responsibility, then I think you're much more likely to be successful.
- ghiculescu 4y ago
  > But I have spent the last year as the first employee working on building out a start-up, where a big challenge is in establishing a team and learning how to build a product that people want to buy. Lots of people have these experiences but don’t succeed as founders. I suspect a key difference is you are currently doing it without real risk, and with someone else’s risk appetite. I’d be wary of trying to apply the exact same approach when it’s your company on the line. So in that sense there will be just as many “firsts” either way.
PeterisP 4y ago
The key assertion of the fine article seems to be that if you've worked as an engineer in a startup, then you at least have seen first-hand how startups work, how they are run, what problems they encounter and what solutions work/fail there. The dynamics of a startup are quite different from those in a large, stable (even if growing) company, so an ex-startup-engineer might have seen more relevant things than a middle manager from some Fortune 500 company.

by hcks 4y ago

lawrjone 4y ago

I'm not sure most successful tech start-up founders have management consultant backgrounds, I've not seen that at least! Speaking to the point about not having been a founder myself: you're right, and hope I was clear about that in the article. But I have spent the last year as the first employee working on building out a start-up, where a big challenge is in establishing a team and learning how to build a product that people want to buy. When you build a start-up as a founder, you need to know how to do that stuff. Otherwise there won't be much point in being good at the founder-specific work like raising money etc, because there's not a business around it. The main point is to try to minimise the 'firsts' you might have when you start your own company. If the only thing you're doing for the first time is exclusively founder responsibility, then I think you're much more likely to be successful.

ghiculescu 4y ago
> But I have spent the last year as the first employee working on building out a start-up, where a big challenge is in establishing a team and learning how to build a product that people want to buy. Lots of people have these experiences but don’t succeed as founders. I suspect a key difference is you are currently doing it without real risk, and with someone else’s risk appetite. I’d be wary of trying to apply the exact same approach when it’s your company on the line. So in that sense there will be just as many “firsts” either way.

PeterisP 4y ago

The key assertion of the fine article seems to be that if you've worked as an engineer in a startup, then you at least have seen first-hand how startups work, how they are run, what problems they encounter and what solutions work/fail there. The dynamics of a startup are quite different from those in a large, stable (even if growing) company, so an ex-startup-engineer might have seen more relevant things than a middle manager from some Fortune 500 company.