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Ask HN: So is it easier to raise money than find a job?
So I moved back to the Bay Area two years ago. Since then, I've been trying to either raise an angel round or find steady work. Every start-up claims they're hiring. In my experience, however, that's just not the case. During this same period of time, I've witnessed no shortage of half-baked ideas raise all sorts of money.
But I understand the business aspects of why raising money is easier. Hiring people means expenses for recruiting, training, payroll liabilities, and legal issues if the employee doesn't work out. Raising money on the other hand is much more straight-forward; investors cut a check and the exact risk is the potential of losing the investment.
So my question to all of you is: Can we just conclude that its easier to raise money than find a job?
- 46Bit 14y agoWithout a track record of success I'd question that it's that easy to raise funding. It might help if you explained your experiences with startups that are hiring.
- citizenkeys 14y agoI said "easier", not "easy". In my experiences in attempting to find steady work at start-ups, the founders are consistently so busy keeping things from falling apart that it seems like they have attention deficit disorder. Also, early stage start-ups frequently don't fully understand what jobs they need to fill or why. Finally, most early-stage start-ups don't consistently have enough money to pay full-time employees.
- omnivore 14y agoI'd suspect that there are lots of places in the country far less cool that the Bay Area that would offer someone talented a job. It's just that they're not in the Bay Area. Way easier to find a job than to get funding.
- debacle 14y agoI know this sounds a bit uncouth, but maybe the problem is that you're not good enough to work at many of the startups that are hiring? The kind of ROI that a startup needs to get out of their first hires is immense. They need people who could have been founders but are willing to work as engineers. Many people may just not have that level of value.
- lsc 14y agoI can understand why a good and experienced Engineer would become a founder of a startup. I do not see why a good and experienced Engineer would become an early employee of a startup, when they can get paid better and treated better for less work at larger corporations. As an employee at a startup, you get most of the downside, and very little of the upside that you would get as a founder. Really? as an Employee, you are far better off with a larger company. Most startups offer some token stock and below-market wages. As such, they are competing, usually, for inexperienced Engineers.
- throwaway1979 14y agoIt does feel that way. I started interviewing recently (I'm an experienced dev) and it feels like the interview process is screwed up across the board. Back in the day, Microsoft used to have the most grilling process. A full day with 5 interviews. These days, multiple rounds of phone interviews seem to be table stakes. Perhaps I should look for angel investment ... it can't be more annoying that writing yet another linked list traversal ...