12 ms·

Look, startups suck. Failed startups suck. Successful startups suck. Silicon Valley sucks. But so does working regular jobs, and so do a lot of things. The

by birken 13y ago

Look, startups suck. Failed startups suck. Successful startups suck. Silicon Valley sucks. But so does working regular jobs, and so do a lot of things. The problem here is probably that you had the wrong expectations, and then when reality hit, it hit really hard. If you want to play the game, you better be mentally prepared for dealing with a lot of shit. Egos are going to clash. Friendships are going to be strained. Stress is going to occur. To use one of my favorite quotes my dad always said to me, "that is life in the big city". Startups are not romantic -- they are a slog. But... if you are building something you want to build, it can be worth it. Just don't expect it to be easy.

useraccount 13y ago
This is the most reasonable thing anyone has ever said about Silicon Valley.
- vasilipupkin 13y ago
  Surely, that can't be true
kenrikm 13y ago
I agree, there are some great highs, the lows really suck. In the end you have to enjoy doing really hard things and things you don't enjoy or this place won't be right for you.
- jusben1369 13y ago
  Actually, in the end you have to make sure you don't let yourself get too high on the high or too low on the lows. Those are the ones that make it.
lzecon 13y ago
Excellent point - I think working at a regular job is important to appreciate what you might be getting out of a startup and what kind of expectations you should be having going in.
- balls187 13y ago
  I'd be surprised if any first time startup founder has all their expectations met.
balls187 13y ago
From my read, it came down to founders issues, which is a big reason why startups fail, or at the very least have breakups. It's something I know very well. At the end, when things suck (and they will totally suck), and you have to drive hard, you gotta know that the people who are with you, are those you can be with the next 8-10 years.
AznHisoka 13y ago
"Egos are going to clash" I feel the best way working with others on a startup is to stop focusing on being right, or trying to prove yourself to others, and just focus on product-market fit, revenue, growth, etc. If you're going to be made a fool, but the product succeeds, then so be it.
founder4fun 13y ago
Indeed this shit is not easy! One day your on a huge blog/well known publication and your traffic is going nuts. The next day its all gone. One day your celebrating your investment/funding win. The next your struggling to find more money and or accept it's not going to happen. One day your invited to demo your latest tech to one of the big tech firms thinking it's your big win you've worked years for. The next you realize/wonder damn did they just steal our hard work - why did they treat us like garbage? So many ups and downs. Sometimes you just want to give up, but you don't because this what you love to do and if you stop/give up on one tech idea you'll get restless and do another!
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- robotresearcher 13y ago
  You got "you're" wrong 4 times in that 5 sentence post. I know it's pedantic, but this stuff is important if you're trying to make a good impression in written communication. Why take a chance on looking slightly careless, when it's easy to get it right? If you think it doesn't matter, you're wrong.
  - sizzle 13y ago
    tactfully stated, HN is awesome.
    - derrida 13y ago
      HN is awesome. Democracy is fair. Jesus Christ is Lord. Praise be to Allah. Human rights are essential. The functioning of ideology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology Silicon Valley has its own ideology, and HN is the center of it. Any statement of "...is awesome" is a good candidate for finding the foundations of this ideology. Any good ideology has to encompass a diversity of views to survive. In this case, we see the public prostration of the spat out soul who voluntarily subjects their weakness to the crowd in the name of self-development. Addressing whether this is a good or bad thing would be to enter into the terms of which this particular ideology functions. Most ideologies typically benefit a certain class of people: clergy, politicians, a bureaucracy, academia, venture capital.
hnriot 13y ago
Startups don't suck! After having worked at plenty over the years I don't agree at all. I guess it depends how you respond to change and volatility. Some people find comfort in things staying the same, but I enjoy the high rate of change in startups. I enjoy the pace, sometimes it can be stressful but after a few you don't get too worried - investors come and go, products come and go, fortunes comes and go. It's not the destination that matters, if all you're focused on is the exit then you'll miss the fun. For me it's about staying current. After being a software dev for 25 years I still absolutely love the latest jquery widget, or that Factorie has just hit 1.0 and I can do Dependency Parsing in Scala, or that Pig can now talk to Spark, etc.. To enjoy startups you have to love technology. It's like dating, if all you're thinking about is getting the girl into bed it won't end well, if instead you enjoy the conversation and are genuinely having a good time then ... who knows.
- laureny 13y ago
  > To enjoy startups you have to love technology. In my experience, if you love technology and tinkering, you should absolutely not work at a startup. In the first years, a startup's main objective is results, results, results. Now is not the time to play with the latest node.js module, it's about picking the technology that will allow you to reach your goal the fastest, period. Compromise on that and another startup built on PHP will beat you to the punch. If you love tinkering, join a big company. Spend a few months there to prove yourself to your colleagues and superiors and once you have that, you will have no problems carving out a comfortable 20% time that only you know about that you can use to tinker with the latest hotness. Just don't do that at a startup, or be prepared to be the reason why the startup failed.
  - kevinskii 13y ago
    My experience matches yours. I work in a huge company, and my 20% time is more like 60% time. Every year or so I'm working on a completely new project and technology of my choosing, which is largely what has kept me here for the last decade. I don't have to worry about the company not being able to pay its bills if it takes me a bit longer than anticipated to prove a concept, and my reputation affords me the luxury of doing so.
AKifer 13y ago
Making money and real wealth ain't suck at all. And a startup that makes money ain't suck. It's just that this trend of getting funded first that brings frustrations and clashes. Investors want their money back and multiplicated, you the founders have to work hard just to meet this expectation. I far prefer for instance start anything that will make 500k per year without any VC fundings than take 1 million from VC and have to make a 10 million business from and being in the red for 2 or more years, a lot stressful and frustrating.

by birken 13y ago

useraccount 13y ago

This is the most reasonable thing anyone has ever said about Silicon Valley.

vasilipupkin 13y ago
Surely, that can't be true

kenrikm 13y ago

I agree, there are some great highs, the lows really suck. In the end you have to enjoy doing really hard things and things you don't enjoy or this place won't be right for you.

jusben1369 13y ago
Actually, in the end you have to make sure you don't let yourself get too high on the high or too low on the lows. Those are the ones that make it.

lzecon 13y ago

Excellent point - I think working at a regular job is important to appreciate what you might be getting out of a startup and what kind of expectations you should be having going in.

balls187 13y ago
I'd be surprised if any first time startup founder has all their expectations met.

balls187 13y ago

From my read, it came down to founders issues, which is a big reason why startups fail, or at the very least have breakups. It's something I know very well. At the end, when things suck (and they will totally suck), and you have to drive hard, you gotta know that the people who are with you, are those you can be with the next 8-10 years.

AznHisoka 13y ago

"Egos are going to clash" I feel the best way working with others on a startup is to stop focusing on being right, or trying to prove yourself to others, and just focus on product-market fit, revenue, growth, etc. If you're going to be made a fool, but the product succeeds, then so be it.

founder4fun 13y ago

Indeed this shit is not easy! One day your on a huge blog/well known publication and your traffic is going nuts. The next day its all gone. One day your celebrating your investment/funding win. The next your struggling to find more money and or accept it's not going to happen. One day your invited to demo your latest tech to one of the big tech firms thinking it's your big win you've worked years for. The next you realize/wonder damn did they just steal our hard work - why did they treat us like garbage? So many ups and downs. Sometimes you just want to give up, but you don't because this what you love to do and if you stop/give up on one tech idea you'll get restless and do another!

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
robotresearcher 13y ago
You got "you're" wrong 4 times in that 5 sentence post. I know it's pedantic, but this stuff is important if you're trying to make a good impression in written communication. Why take a chance on looking slightly careless, when it's easy to get it right? If you think it doesn't matter, you're wrong.
- sizzle 13y ago
  tactfully stated, HN is awesome.
  - derrida 13y ago
    HN is awesome. Democracy is fair. Jesus Christ is Lord. Praise be to Allah. Human rights are essential. The functioning of ideology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology Silicon Valley has its own ideology, and HN is the center of it. Any statement of "...is awesome" is a good candidate for finding the foundations of this ideology. Any good ideology has to encompass a diversity of views to survive. In this case, we see the public prostration of the spat out soul who voluntarily subjects their weakness to the crowd in the name of self-development. Addressing whether this is a good or bad thing would be to enter into the terms of which this particular ideology functions. Most ideologies typically benefit a certain class of people: clergy, politicians, a bureaucracy, academia, venture capital.

hnriot 13y ago

Startups don't suck! After having worked at plenty over the years I don't agree at all. I guess it depends how you respond to change and volatility. Some people find comfort in things staying the same, but I enjoy the high rate of change in startups. I enjoy the pace, sometimes it can be stressful but after a few you don't get too worried - investors come and go, products come and go, fortunes comes and go. It's not the destination that matters, if all you're focused on is the exit then you'll miss the fun. For me it's about staying current. After being a software dev for 25 years I still absolutely love the latest jquery widget, or that Factorie has just hit 1.0 and I can do Dependency Parsing in Scala, or that Pig can now talk to Spark, etc.. To enjoy startups you have to love technology. It's like dating, if all you're thinking about is getting the girl into bed it won't end well, if instead you enjoy the conversation and are genuinely having a good time then ... who knows.

laureny 13y ago
> To enjoy startups you have to love technology. In my experience, if you love technology and tinkering, you should absolutely not work at a startup. In the first years, a startup's main objective is results, results, results. Now is not the time to play with the latest node.js module, it's about picking the technology that will allow you to reach your goal the fastest, period. Compromise on that and another startup built on PHP will beat you to the punch. If you love tinkering, join a big company. Spend a few months there to prove yourself to your colleagues and superiors and once you have that, you will have no problems carving out a comfortable 20% time that only you know about that you can use to tinker with the latest hotness. Just don't do that at a startup, or be prepared to be the reason why the startup failed.
- kevinskii 13y ago
  My experience matches yours. I work in a huge company, and my 20% time is more like 60% time. Every year or so I'm working on a completely new project and technology of my choosing, which is largely what has kept me here for the last decade. I don't have to worry about the company not being able to pay its bills if it takes me a bit longer than anticipated to prove a concept, and my reputation affords me the luxury of doing so.

AKifer 13y ago

Making money and real wealth ain't suck at all. And a startup that makes money ain't suck. It's just that this trend of getting funded first that brings frustrations and clashes. Investors want their money back and multiplicated, you the founders have to work hard just to meet this expectation. I far prefer for instance start anything that will make 500k per year without any VC fundings than take 1 million from VC and have to make a 10 million business from and being in the red for 2 or more years, a lot stressful and frustrating.