4 ms·
I totally agree. I used to be dilbert in a cube working for Charles Schwab writing code 10 to 12 hours per day (and weekends) and then poof I got laid off and m
by fishonmars 18y ago
I totally agree. I used to be dilbert in a cube working for Charles Schwab writing code 10 to 12 hours per day (and weekends) and then poof I got laid off and my job went to India. But before that my co-workers were jumping ship to work at startups and I thought they were nuts. I'm now working on my third startup and this one has a chance because I'm competing with eBay (4cheetahs.com). Even working for a billion dollars company on multi-million dollar project with egotistical personalities decked out all in black attire and goatees doesn't guarantee you won't get laid off or canned for not writing code fast enough.
Now is the perfect time to start a startup becuase you can recruit more people who will work for experience.
My first startup was Big Bear and I recruited engineers off of craigslist for free to compete with Tivo. In a year they had built a new technology to modify (in one minute) any vcr or dvdr to be programmed from a computer through wireless or usb or over the web or a cell phone. Just couldn't get funding. Then I tried competing with Match.com and the site never launched and I focused on recruiting do-nothing MBAs from our countries finest business schools (another waste of time). This time I only care about programmers. I've interviewed more than 100 MBAs they are as different in their views as economists are about the economy and most couldn't write a line of code to save their life. All I care about is building a team of good programmers. Thus far I've found two to join the cause. Site goes up next month and I'm pretty jazzed about that.
If I had a well paid job I wouldn't take the plunge in a startup. I'd be too chicken. But since I've been out of work since 9/11 it's much easier to take the plunge and I don't care nor thinking about the risk. Everything and anything you do in life involves risk. You only live once. You might as well be rich that's my motto.