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This is very true. As the founder of a company that's gone from just the co-founders working together to a small and growing team, one of the things I miss is

This is very true. As the founder of a company that's gone from just the co-founders working together to a small and growing team, one of the things I miss is that I can't expect the same level of sacrifice and commitment out of early employees as I did out of the founding team. It's not that we don't work hard to find motivated and talented hires, but it doesn't matter. I don't think it's possible to completely align the incentives -- if you're hiring smart, talented people you're probably fighting for them, and they know that if this company fails they'll just go work at Google or Facebook or one of the other places they turned down job offers. It's a subtle difference, but as a founder the company failing is an unthinkable, unspeakable horror. As an employee it's a pain, a little bit sad, and you'll have to spend some time finding a new job. Employees can afford to be rational and pragmatic about it, founders often can't. As they say, "You'll never get as high as your first hit." Think of Apple when its only two employees were Jobs & Woz, or Microsoft when it was just Gates & Allen. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to grow and to work with people who are masters in their respective fields, but there's nothing quite like working on a team that's small and dedicated. Scaling a team is hard -- especially when you don't really know how to do it. Not only is it hard as a co-founder to not "touch" every line of code that goes out, but your job turns to hiring and making sure the rowers (which you can't always be a part of) are turning the boat in the right direction. We try to keep the project management very minimal, but there's no way I'm aware of that you can get by without quick meetings people end up calling "scrums" (even though they're not) and relying way too much on a Trello board. At least not when you need everyone on exactly the same page and to be shipping product quickly. Maybe I'm not a good manager (I know I'm not in some aspects), but it's a lot harder to turn a bigger ship than the little inner tube we used to have. It's easy to see why startups can out-innovate and out-work huge companies. The irony is that if you do that well, you become a huge company. The startup circle of life, I suppose.

7Figures2Commas 12y ago
> As the founder of a company that's gone from just the co-founders working together to a small and growing team, one of the things I miss is that I can't expect the same level of sacrifice and commitment out of early employees as I did out of the founding team. You should look at this as a feature, not a bug. Employees who will never be as invested as the founding team are like thermometers. Take their temperature on a regular basis and it can reveal important facts about your company that you'd probably be blind to otherwise. > ...if you're hiring smart, talented people you're probably fighting for them, and they know that if this company fails they'll just go work at Google or Facebook or one of the other places they turned down job offers. Not all of the smart and talented people out there are Google or Facebook material, which is one of the reasons startups should stop trying to build the New York Yankees. Don't exclude people with potential. With a focus on employee development, you can grow great employees who are going to be far more loyal to you because you gave them an opportunity.
- digi_owl 12y ago
  Yep, you can't red line a engine forever. Sooner or later something gives, and likely it will be at the worst possible moment. Demanding constant sacrifice seems like a recipe for a revolt amongst the gladiators...
angersock 12y ago
It's important to recognize the flip side of the coin (based on my own experience): If you aren't articulating your vision well, then of course early employees won't be doing what you expect--and if you don't document what your tech is, of course they will just roll their own. If you don't give them a reasonable stake in the company in real stock or revenue sharing, then of course early employees won't put in the same work. If you wasted a lot of effort learning things the hard way about your tech or your business, and you hire early employees that already knew how to do things the right way, of course they won't appear to be working as hard. It can be really sad watching cofounders screw over early employees all the while wringing hands about "dang, these folks just aren't as committed as we were". Early employee at a startup sucks, because you don't have the financial security of being a cog, you don't have the respect or payoff of being a cofounder, and you do have to clean up after the cofounders messes and grow the business.
mahyarm 12y ago
Your founders. You pay nothing to acquire your stock, you probably avoid AMT brain damage because you avoid a cost to acquire your stock, you have little restrictions on how you sell your stock compared to employees and as founders your stock portion will be bigger than the entire employee stock option pool for the life of the company. Of course they are not going to be as motivated as you are. And as a founder of a failed company, you too can go work at Goofacesoft too afterwards. It's also your baby, your the one who can be emotionally invested in the company %100 because other than investor hostile takeover or founder politics, your not going to stop being the one who has ultimate ownership of the company. Employees learn after a few jobs that being emotionally invested into a company %100 is not good, because you don't have ultimate responsibility and ownership of it and it easily can be taken away from you.

7Figures2Commas 12y ago

> As the founder of a company that's gone from just the co-founders working together to a small and growing team, one of the things I miss is that I can't expect the same level of sacrifice and commitment out of early employees as I did out of the founding team. You should look at this as a feature, not a bug. Employees who will never be as invested as the founding team are like thermometers. Take their temperature on a regular basis and it can reveal important facts about your company that you'd probably be blind to otherwise. > ...if you're hiring smart, talented people you're probably fighting for them, and they know that if this company fails they'll just go work at Google or Facebook or one of the other places they turned down job offers. Not all of the smart and talented people out there are Google or Facebook material, which is one of the reasons startups should stop trying to build the New York Yankees. Don't exclude people with potential. With a focus on employee development, you can grow great employees who are going to be far more loyal to you because you gave them an opportunity.

digi_owl 12y ago
Yep, you can't red line a engine forever. Sooner or later something gives, and likely it will be at the worst possible moment. Demanding constant sacrifice seems like a recipe for a revolt amongst the gladiators...

angersock 12y ago

It's important to recognize the flip side of the coin (based on my own experience): If you aren't articulating your vision well, then of course early employees won't be doing what you expect--and if you don't document what your tech is, of course they will just roll their own. If you don't give them a reasonable stake in the company in real stock or revenue sharing, then of course early employees won't put in the same work. If you wasted a lot of effort learning things the hard way about your tech or your business, and you hire early employees that already knew how to do things the right way, of course they won't appear to be working as hard. It can be really sad watching cofounders screw over early employees all the while wringing hands about "dang, these folks just aren't as committed as we were". Early employee at a startup sucks, because you don't have the financial security of being a cog, you don't have the respect or payoff of being a cofounder, and you do have to clean up after the cofounders messes and grow the business.

mahyarm 12y ago

Your founders. You pay nothing to acquire your stock, you probably avoid AMT brain damage because you avoid a cost to acquire your stock, you have little restrictions on how you sell your stock compared to employees and as founders your stock portion will be bigger than the entire employee stock option pool for the life of the company. Of course they are not going to be as motivated as you are. And as a founder of a failed company, you too can go work at Goofacesoft too afterwards. It's also your baby, your the one who can be emotionally invested in the company %100 because other than investor hostile takeover or founder politics, your not going to stop being the one who has ultimate ownership of the company. Employees learn after a few jobs that being emotionally invested into a company %100 is not good, because you don't have ultimate responsibility and ownership of it and it easily can be taken away from you.