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There's two ways to look at this that I'll suggest, since I have a certain amount of familiarity with this. 1) You're 25 years old, and already have one acqui-

There's two ways to look at this that I'll suggest, since I have a certain amount of familiarity with this. 1) You're 25 years old, and already have one acqui-hire under your belt. That's pretty impressive. Considering probably 90%? 99%? of people will never have a startup they build acquired under any circumstances, it seems weird to describe yourself as an underachiever. There's this weird cult of young entrepreneurship, where it's implied that if you're in your 20s, you must be founding companies or you're just wasting your time. I'll throw something out there instead - why not spend the next few years working at your day job and trying to learn how to be a better startup founder the next time you do it? Think of it like being in training for the next gig. 2) my other perspective on this: > What do you do when you believe that you can do great things but something that you have no control over is holding you back? You believe that you are good at what you do and are meant for great things but you have to do your job even though it doesn't do justice to your capabilities. That's called "adulthood". Sometimes you have responsibilities that limit your options or make it hard to do what you love.

dkersten 12y ago
"why not spend the next few years working at your day job and ..." I realised recently that my life would be a lot better right now if I worked the so-called soul destroying corporate job because I'd have more money, work fewer hours, have less stress during work, people would expect less from me, I'd have infinitely more holidays, more work-free weekends... Sometimes its hard to see what you've got until its gone :) Don't get me wrong, I like being a founder and don't regret it for a minute, but when times get tough I look back and think the soul destroying corporate days were actually pretty good. Which brings me to this: Life (usually) really is what you make of it.
- mattzito 12y ago
  Yeah, so - I/we started GridApp when I was 23. I didn't have any grand dreams about being a 20-something entrepreneur, I just came to the (accurate, as it turns out) conclusion that it was never going to be easier to completely upend my personal and professional life than it was when I was 23 - no mortgage, no SO, no debt other than student loans, no kids, etc. When we got acquired, I assumed that I would leave as soon as I could and do it all again - but yet, I'm still here. It's interesting work, and while I miss the ability to just get things done, I find that I've been getting a lot better at dealing with problems at scale. So, for example, how DO you launch a new product to a sales and support organization with hundreds of people? I'm not saying I'll never start a company again, because I really want to, but I'm enjoying feeling like I'm learning how to do things better next time.
  - imdsm 12y ago
    I do like your titles; CEO, CTO, Chief Scientist, Director of Development, and Mr. Database.
    - mattzito 12y ago
      A lot of that was an artifact of how we got started - it wasn't quite clear who would be doing what, and so other than CEO, everyone's responsibilities were pretty amorphous. I got saddled with "chief scientist", but practically speaking it was "technical field operations and product management", which just ends up being a lot to put on a business card.
      - throwaway7808 12y ago
        AFAIK "chief scientist" title assumes that you, or your team of scientists are doing academic research. And that you publish results of your research. Taking a title like that, while actually not doing it is a borderline fraud. If I'll get a resume with "scientist" or "researcher" in the title, the first thing I would look at would be published academic papers. If there are none, I will not consider this resume.
        mattzito 12y ago
        Well, the origins were far more benign than "borderline fraud" - my original role was doing product research in distributed database design and performance. I gave a lot of talks and wrote a couple of (non-acaddemic) papers on how to build widely distributed database systems, focusing on Oracle RAC. My job evolved to be more of a business-focused role, but my title did not. The intention was never to mislead, and indeed, when asked, I never claimed to be an academic. > Taking a title like that, while actually not doing it is a borderline fraud That seems like a strong conclusion to draw. My title now is "Product Architect", but I'm not an architect, nor do I exclusively design products. A quick skim through Crunchbase yields: http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jeff-hammerbacher http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jeff-hammerbacher (bright guy, not an academic) http://www.crunchbase.com/person/bram-cohen http://www.crunchbase.com/person/bram-cohen (not an academic) http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chris-slowe http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chris-slowe (not really an academic) And that's in the first 10 results. "Fraud" seems strong.
- flavor8 12y ago
  On the flip side, founding a company can actually give you more time back, depending on the company. I started a consulting biz last year, and have a ton more vacation, slack days by choice, evenings and weekends than I did when working my previous full time job.
  - martynasb 12y ago
    How do you started it? How long it took for you to find first clients?
    - flavor8 12y ago
      I was vital enough to my full time employer that I knew they'd give me some contracting to hold them over. And, I had a couple of contacts who I knew were interested in my doing some work for them. I started planning 3 months before I gave notice. Made sure I had 6 months' savings. Formed an LLC, talked with a business attorney and CPA, and lined up projects before my quit-date. So I was basically ready to go from day 1.
- mhorne27 12y ago
  So true. I have been working in a corporate job (finance!!) for 9 years. I often dream of saving my soul and working on/founding a startup. The appeal of building something, working for myself, etc is great. But, so is the regular paycheck and benefits. On which side is the grass greener?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
lehoule 12y ago
"Think of it like being in training for the next gig." Amazing way to put it. I'm 25 myself and this is the only reason why I'm still working for my big corp. Payed school.
- hga 12y ago
  The other thing is, "working for my big corp" should teach you a lot of things, including useful stuff for a startup. With much less responsibility (e.g. you're not worried about making payroll), you have the luxury of observing and thinking about it.
- monkey_slap 12y ago
  This is my plan as well (also 25). I want to learn from some of the best so that when I'm a bit older I have enough world experience to build something myself. Sure I could build all sorts of apps now, but that is only fraction of the work that goes into building a sustainable business. I used to think life was a race, but I'm really enjoying the growth and learning parts.
marktangotango 12y ago
Learning the ins and outs of some particular industry is a great way to get ideas for the next startup. Every industry has pain points, where is the pain in your new company? Also, 'great things' can mean different things to different people. Like building a marriage and raising children. Everyone does it, so it can't really be that big of deal. Can it? Try and see...
cliffcrosland 12y ago
The next job can absolutely be used as training for your next gig. Also, the next job can be your financial foundation as you start your next gig on the side. Running a startup should not put your family's livelihood at risk. My father is an entrepreneur and frequently had several small side projects going on at any given time while I was growing up. Right now, he's focused on building up one business, but another business he built up previously is still bringing in solid income. Several great companies started as side projects while the founders were occupied with some other "real" job: GitHub, Google (perhaps debatable, but it started while the founders were full-time students), Facebook, Basecamp, and the list goes on and on. I once read James Altucher explain that he stayed at his "real" job for two years while he built up his side business. By the time he quit to work on his startup full-time, the startup was already extremely healthy with several full-time employees and enough customers to profitably pay everyone a great salary. Of course, you'll have to talk to your new employer to work out the legality of creating side projects. But if you pursue building something up on the side, you'll be joining a long tradition of entrepreneurs who have done the same, some of whom have built companies that will be remembered for centuries.
Ixiaus 12y ago
This is good advice OP. I'm 28, have co-founded three startups, first one was "acquired" for the technology for an "undisclosed sum" (we all know what that means). I used to feel a little weird about it too, particularly because it chased the splitting of my cofounder and I; ya know what though, I built that technology and it was valuable enough to one of our customers to buy it. That is definitely more than most founders can say. Don't let startup hype get to you. The parent commenter said something else I want to echo: take some time and learn from other leaders right now, make money, get a good emergency fund AND a "startup fund" built. Get your hands dirty in other businesses and see what they're using spreadsheets for and what they are doing repetitively -- that's where you'll (most likely) find your next product opportunity.
- chubot 12y ago
  I don't :) What does "undisclosed sum" mean? Does it mean you got a year's salary, 10 years', or a nominal sum like $1 for the tech and a job?
  - Ixiaus 12y ago
    I legally cannot talk about the details of the acquisition, but it usually means "not glamorous" :) There's much more to the story, I had blogged about it but svbtle deactivated my account for no reason and is unreachable. If you're really curious about the story I'd be happy to converse privately over email.
emotionalcode 12y ago
> it seems weird to describe yourself as an underachiever. It is really not that weird. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome What I hate, however, is knowing about imposter syndrome and letting that screw with my mind. I think, "maybe I am using imposter syndrome as a way to sneakily support my ego that is only partially supported by reality. Reality does not support my ego at the inflated levels I want to believe in." But then I think - well, I suppose I have to be smart to trick myself in such a ridiculous way, and conclude I actually am smart. That leads me to think that I am actually an intellectual imposter, and it's traditional that I take that as a truth, which my ego has temporarily decided to not believe in, for certain problem kinds. Lately, I build on top of externally developing habits - like studying, running, meditating, eating healthy, sleeping healthy, working at a normal pace, and having confidence in my own opinions about computer science, logic, mathematics, and programming. This helps me think less about how I perceive myself and how others perceive me, but I can get knocked off my horse once in a while. I just try to remind myself that it's just time wasted that I could use studying, working, or helping other people - which is more thinking about the long long term, rather than each individual achievement.
- onedev 12y ago
  You just described my life so well. Thank you.

dkersten 12y ago

"why not spend the next few years working at your day job and ..." I realised recently that my life would be a lot better right now if I worked the so-called soul destroying corporate job because I'd have more money, work fewer hours, have less stress during work, people would expect less from me, I'd have infinitely more holidays, more work-free weekends... Sometimes its hard to see what you've got until its gone :) Don't get me wrong, I like being a founder and don't regret it for a minute, but when times get tough I look back and think the soul destroying corporate days were actually pretty good. Which brings me to this: Life (usually) really is what you make of it.

mattzito 12y ago
Yeah, so - I/we started GridApp when I was 23. I didn't have any grand dreams about being a 20-something entrepreneur, I just came to the (accurate, as it turns out) conclusion that it was never going to be easier to completely upend my personal and professional life than it was when I was 23 - no mortgage, no SO, no debt other than student loans, no kids, etc. When we got acquired, I assumed that I would leave as soon as I could and do it all again - but yet, I'm still here. It's interesting work, and while I miss the ability to just get things done, I find that I've been getting a lot better at dealing with problems at scale. So, for example, how DO you launch a new product to a sales and support organization with hundreds of people? I'm not saying I'll never start a company again, because I really want to, but I'm enjoying feeling like I'm learning how to do things better next time.
- imdsm 12y ago
  I do like your titles; CEO, CTO, Chief Scientist, Director of Development, and Mr. Database.
  - mattzito 12y ago
    A lot of that was an artifact of how we got started - it wasn't quite clear who would be doing what, and so other than CEO, everyone's responsibilities were pretty amorphous. I got saddled with "chief scientist", but practically speaking it was "technical field operations and product management", which just ends up being a lot to put on a business card.
    - throwaway7808 12y ago
      AFAIK "chief scientist" title assumes that you, or your team of scientists are doing academic research. And that you publish results of your research. Taking a title like that, while actually not doing it is a borderline fraud. If I'll get a resume with "scientist" or "researcher" in the title, the first thing I would look at would be published academic papers. If there are none, I will not consider this resume.
      - mattzito 12y ago
        Well, the origins were far more benign than "borderline fraud" - my original role was doing product research in distributed database design and performance. I gave a lot of talks and wrote a couple of (non-acaddemic) papers on how to build widely distributed database systems, focusing on Oracle RAC. My job evolved to be more of a business-focused role, but my title did not. The intention was never to mislead, and indeed, when asked, I never claimed to be an academic. > Taking a title like that, while actually not doing it is a borderline fraud That seems like a strong conclusion to draw. My title now is "Product Architect", but I'm not an architect, nor do I exclusively design products. A quick skim through Crunchbase yields: http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jeff-hammerbacher http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jeff-hammerbacher (bright guy, not an academic) http://www.crunchbase.com/person/bram-cohen http://www.crunchbase.com/person/bram-cohen (not an academic) http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chris-slowe http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chris-slowe (not really an academic) And that's in the first 10 results. "Fraud" seems strong.
flavor8 12y ago
On the flip side, founding a company can actually give you more time back, depending on the company. I started a consulting biz last year, and have a ton more vacation, slack days by choice, evenings and weekends than I did when working my previous full time job.
- martynasb 12y ago
  How do you started it? How long it took for you to find first clients?
  - flavor8 12y ago
    I was vital enough to my full time employer that I knew they'd give me some contracting to hold them over. And, I had a couple of contacts who I knew were interested in my doing some work for them. I started planning 3 months before I gave notice. Made sure I had 6 months' savings. Formed an LLC, talked with a business attorney and CPA, and lined up projects before my quit-date. So I was basically ready to go from day 1.
mhorne27 12y ago
So true. I have been working in a corporate job (finance!!) for 9 years. I often dream of saving my soul and working on/founding a startup. The appeal of building something, working for myself, etc is great. But, so is the regular paycheck and benefits. On which side is the grass greener?
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

lehoule 12y ago

"Think of it like being in training for the next gig." Amazing way to put it. I'm 25 myself and this is the only reason why I'm still working for my big corp. Payed school.

hga 12y ago
The other thing is, "working for my big corp" should teach you a lot of things, including useful stuff for a startup. With much less responsibility (e.g. you're not worried about making payroll), you have the luxury of observing and thinking about it.
monkey_slap 12y ago
This is my plan as well (also 25). I want to learn from some of the best so that when I'm a bit older I have enough world experience to build something myself. Sure I could build all sorts of apps now, but that is only fraction of the work that goes into building a sustainable business. I used to think life was a race, but I'm really enjoying the growth and learning parts.

marktangotango 12y ago

Learning the ins and outs of some particular industry is a great way to get ideas for the next startup. Every industry has pain points, where is the pain in your new company? Also, 'great things' can mean different things to different people. Like building a marriage and raising children. Everyone does it, so it can't really be that big of deal. Can it? Try and see...

cliffcrosland 12y ago

The next job can absolutely be used as training for your next gig. Also, the next job can be your financial foundation as you start your next gig on the side. Running a startup should not put your family's livelihood at risk. My father is an entrepreneur and frequently had several small side projects going on at any given time while I was growing up. Right now, he's focused on building up one business, but another business he built up previously is still bringing in solid income. Several great companies started as side projects while the founders were occupied with some other "real" job: GitHub, Google (perhaps debatable, but it started while the founders were full-time students), Facebook, Basecamp, and the list goes on and on. I once read James Altucher explain that he stayed at his "real" job for two years while he built up his side business. By the time he quit to work on his startup full-time, the startup was already extremely healthy with several full-time employees and enough customers to profitably pay everyone a great salary. Of course, you'll have to talk to your new employer to work out the legality of creating side projects. But if you pursue building something up on the side, you'll be joining a long tradition of entrepreneurs who have done the same, some of whom have built companies that will be remembered for centuries.

Ixiaus 12y ago

This is good advice OP. I'm 28, have co-founded three startups, first one was "acquired" for the technology for an "undisclosed sum" (we all know what that means). I used to feel a little weird about it too, particularly because it chased the splitting of my cofounder and I; ya know what though, I built that technology and it was valuable enough to one of our customers to buy it. That is definitely more than most founders can say. Don't let startup hype get to you. The parent commenter said something else I want to echo: take some time and learn from other leaders right now, make money, get a good emergency fund AND a "startup fund" built. Get your hands dirty in other businesses and see what they're using spreadsheets for and what they are doing repetitively -- that's where you'll (most likely) find your next product opportunity.

chubot 12y ago
I don't :) What does "undisclosed sum" mean? Does it mean you got a year's salary, 10 years', or a nominal sum like $1 for the tech and a job?
- Ixiaus 12y ago
  I legally cannot talk about the details of the acquisition, but it usually means "not glamorous" :) There's much more to the story, I had blogged about it but svbtle deactivated my account for no reason and is unreachable. If you're really curious about the story I'd be happy to converse privately over email.

emotionalcode 12y ago

> it seems weird to describe yourself as an underachiever. It is really not that weird. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome What I hate, however, is knowing about imposter syndrome and letting that screw with my mind. I think, "maybe I am using imposter syndrome as a way to sneakily support my ego that is only partially supported by reality. Reality does not support my ego at the inflated levels I want to believe in." But then I think - well, I suppose I have to be smart to trick myself in such a ridiculous way, and conclude I actually am smart. That leads me to think that I am actually an intellectual imposter, and it's traditional that I take that as a truth, which my ego has temporarily decided to not believe in, for certain problem kinds. Lately, I build on top of externally developing habits - like studying, running, meditating, eating healthy, sleeping healthy, working at a normal pace, and having confidence in my own opinions about computer science, logic, mathematics, and programming. This helps me think less about how I perceive myself and how others perceive me, but I can get knocked off my horse once in a while. I just try to remind myself that it's just time wasted that I could use studying, working, or helping other people - which is more thinking about the long long term, rather than each individual achievement.

onedev 12y ago
You just described my life so well. Thank you.