5 ms·

"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 s

"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]

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]