4 ms·

A good read, but the article makes it sound like Seth was some kid who hadn't the slightest idea of anything business, kept trying, and finally hit jackpot with

by kyro 17y ago

A good read, but the article makes it sound like Seth was some kid who hadn't the slightest idea of anything business, kept trying, and finally hit jackpot with Meebo, when in fact, his CrunchBase profile says he "worked in IBM’s mergers and acquisitions department, while also working on corporate strategy and venture capital initiatives prior to starting Meebo." That's not to invalidate his advice, but that seems like a hell of a lot of advantage to have, on top of a great founding team, when heading into a startup.

notauser 17y ago
He was quite self depreciating about his pre-launch role (button goes over here!) which is in my experience a universally good indicator of someone I would want to work with. (Plus 'button goes over here' type input is actually really valuable - when working on UI stuff you tend to get tunnel vision and/or implement what works with the underlying design rather than what makes sense to a user who has no idea about the structure of the data.)
byoung2 17y ago
Being the assistant manager at Olive Garden does not mean you can open your own restaurant. I think that experience at IBM might help in some instances, but it probably didn't translate well to the startup mentality.
- vaksel 17y ago
  I wouldn't discount it, as completely irrelevant. It probably got him that first coverage, and helped convince the VCs over the edge to fund them.
- skolor 17y ago
  No, it doesn't mean you can open your own restaurant, but it means you have at least an idea of how a successful restaurant is run, rather than just starting a business because you're a good cook. Its not my path (Go out, get job, learn how to do things there, start own business), but it definitely brings some advantages with it.
- Slzr 17y ago
  According to the "Richest man in Babylon" its very relevant to have experience on any field before starting up a business
keeptrying 17y ago
Working in a corporate environment in any capacity I think really takes away from understanding what it takes to start a company. I've built many trading systems but getting my own thing off the ground has been really really hard. I'm getting there slowly but looking back I think I'd have been more sucessful if I had tried to start a company right from college. In corporate america, all you do is take care of your own small corner of the business. Namely either sales, business or coding. Building a business means knowing all three. Working in M&A at a bank would basically mean that he created word documents containing lies of how great an acquistion a certain company is for potential buyers. I have 3 friends who do this for a living. I would bet 0 of them would have a clue how to start their own business. In his case he (ie working for the aquicuirer) would be reading these documents and trying to decide if they make sense and which company to buy. BS because mostly your say really doesnt matter.
- nostrademons 17y ago
  I'd disagree with this, but I do think it's important to understand the limitation of what you can learn in a corporate environment. My path was the opposite of many people: I worked for 2 startups, founded one, am now working for a big company, and hope there's another startup in my future. Google was the first company I've worked where I didn't have to set up the build system. And naturally, Google's build system is better than anything I've ever set up. When you work for a big company, you get to draw on the accumulated wisdom of thousands of people that have come before you. A lot of things that seem obvious once you've looked at them - like how to organize your code, or how to design C++ programs with clear object ownership, or how to unit test libraries with lots of dependencies - require lots of laborious trial and error to get right before yourself. Many startups are filled with people that are fairly new to programming (because that's all they can get) and don't have that experience. You can easily go through several jobs thinking that SourceSafe and zip files count as a version control system, it's normal for functions to be 400 lines long, and deployment consists of FTPing a JARfile to the production servers. The weakness in big companies is that you don't see all the false steps that led to these "best practices" being instituted. So you might leave and found a startup thinking that you absolutely must have 100% unit test coverage for everything, because that's the way things were in your 100+ person division in the old company. Or you might go too far in the other direction, and think that you don't have time to setup a decent build system. It takes experience - in both environments that have them and those that don't - to understand the particular circumstances where "best practices" are really best practices. IMHO, the ideal career setup for founding a startup is to intern at startups in high school & college, then work for a fast grower or big company for a couple years afterwards. (And start lots of little companies while you're in classes, of course. ;-)) Startups typically demand more from interns than big companies do, because there's more to do, and you also get to see firsthand all the problems caused by inadequate development practices. And then you can see things done right at a big company, with enough time to actually dive into the meat of it. You still probably won't succeed with your first company (almost nobody does), but at least this'll expose you to what both success and failure looks like.
hyperbovine 17y ago
Is Meebo really "the jackpot"? Their service which seems, at best, marginally useful, and I despise the name. How on Earth they spent $38 million re-inventing the web-based chat wheel is a mystery to me.
- tetha 17y ago
  Meebo is not just another web-based chat. Meebo allows access to all the major instant messaging services via the web. In other words: whenever you just have http-access to the internet, you can get access to your instant messaging. For those people with a lot if communication happening via ICQ and MSN and whatsoever, this is a very strong and helpful thing.
- richcollins 17y ago
  Exactly. I love how they bring people in to write success stories when they aren't (financially) successful yet.

by kyro 17y ago

notauser 17y ago

He was quite self depreciating about his pre-launch role (button goes over here!) which is in my experience a universally good indicator of someone I would want to work with. (Plus 'button goes over here' type input is actually really valuable - when working on UI stuff you tend to get tunnel vision and/or implement what works with the underlying design rather than what makes sense to a user who has no idea about the structure of the data.)

byoung2 17y ago

Being the assistant manager at Olive Garden does not mean you can open your own restaurant. I think that experience at IBM might help in some instances, but it probably didn't translate well to the startup mentality.

vaksel 17y ago
I wouldn't discount it, as completely irrelevant. It probably got him that first coverage, and helped convince the VCs over the edge to fund them.
skolor 17y ago
No, it doesn't mean you can open your own restaurant, but it means you have at least an idea of how a successful restaurant is run, rather than just starting a business because you're a good cook. Its not my path (Go out, get job, learn how to do things there, start own business), but it definitely brings some advantages with it.
Slzr 17y ago
According to the "Richest man in Babylon" its very relevant to have experience on any field before starting up a business

keeptrying 17y ago

Working in a corporate environment in any capacity I think really takes away from understanding what it takes to start a company. I've built many trading systems but getting my own thing off the ground has been really really hard. I'm getting there slowly but looking back I think I'd have been more sucessful if I had tried to start a company right from college. In corporate america, all you do is take care of your own small corner of the business. Namely either sales, business or coding. Building a business means knowing all three. Working in M&A at a bank would basically mean that he created word documents containing lies of how great an acquistion a certain company is for potential buyers. I have 3 friends who do this for a living. I would bet 0 of them would have a clue how to start their own business. In his case he (ie working for the aquicuirer) would be reading these documents and trying to decide if they make sense and which company to buy. BS because mostly your say really doesnt matter.

nostrademons 17y ago
I'd disagree with this, but I do think it's important to understand the limitation of what you can learn in a corporate environment. My path was the opposite of many people: I worked for 2 startups, founded one, am now working for a big company, and hope there's another startup in my future. Google was the first company I've worked where I didn't have to set up the build system. And naturally, Google's build system is better than anything I've ever set up. When you work for a big company, you get to draw on the accumulated wisdom of thousands of people that have come before you. A lot of things that seem obvious once you've looked at them - like how to organize your code, or how to design C++ programs with clear object ownership, or how to unit test libraries with lots of dependencies - require lots of laborious trial and error to get right before yourself. Many startups are filled with people that are fairly new to programming (because that's all they can get) and don't have that experience. You can easily go through several jobs thinking that SourceSafe and zip files count as a version control system, it's normal for functions to be 400 lines long, and deployment consists of FTPing a JARfile to the production servers. The weakness in big companies is that you don't see all the false steps that led to these "best practices" being instituted. So you might leave and found a startup thinking that you absolutely must have 100% unit test coverage for everything, because that's the way things were in your 100+ person division in the old company. Or you might go too far in the other direction, and think that you don't have time to setup a decent build system. It takes experience - in both environments that have them and those that don't - to understand the particular circumstances where "best practices" are really best practices. IMHO, the ideal career setup for founding a startup is to intern at startups in high school & college, then work for a fast grower or big company for a couple years afterwards. (And start lots of little companies while you're in classes, of course. ;-)) Startups typically demand more from interns than big companies do, because there's more to do, and you also get to see firsthand all the problems caused by inadequate development practices. And then you can see things done right at a big company, with enough time to actually dive into the meat of it. You still probably won't succeed with your first company (almost nobody does), but at least this'll expose you to what both success and failure looks like.

hyperbovine 17y ago

Is Meebo really "the jackpot"? Their service which seems, at best, marginally useful, and I despise the name. How on Earth they spent $38 million re-inventing the web-based chat wheel is a mystery to me.

tetha 17y ago
Meebo is not just another web-based chat. Meebo allows access to all the major instant messaging services via the web. In other words: whenever you just have http-access to the internet, you can get access to your instant messaging. For those people with a lot if communication happening via ICQ and MSN and whatsoever, this is a very strong and helpful thing.
richcollins 17y ago
Exactly. I love how they bring people in to write success stories when they aren't (financially) successful yet.