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If you're a pre-PMF startup then you better be working all the time, because the clock's running out and your "dream" will be in the dumpster once there's no mo

If you're a pre-PMF startup then you better be working all the time, because the clock's running out and your "dream" will be in the dumpster once there's no more money. Early stage startups are a sprint, startups like Treehouse have a proven business model and are now basically dealing with scale and optimization, they can go into a well-deserved "regular job" mode with weekends and family time. If you want a 9 to 5, do not do a startup, unless you have something absolutely incredible in your deck that will allow you to bypass the "work crazy" stage. Also early startups aren't all about coding. There's a lot of other extremely beneficial work that can be done once you've reached your coding quota for the day. Nobody wants to hear this, everybody wants to work 4 hours a week and be billionaires, so this inaccurate mythology gets propagated.

enjo 12y ago
shrugs The clock isn't ticking that fast. I have some experience here . I was the second technical hire at a company that went on to sell for nine figures. I founded an unsuccessful company. My second startup (as a founder) went on to be a successful and ongoing thing (revenue in the 7 figure range). For the last two years I've been with a nicely growing early stage startup. I'm throwing out my resume to establish that I'm coming at this with nearly 15 year of startup experience. I've rarely put in more than a 40 hour week at any point in my entire career. While I understand the idea that you are racing to product market fit.. I've never bought into the idea that effort is the thing that drives it. You need to be focused. You need to work hard, but you also need to keep your mind and body fresh. It's more important to produce great work at a reasonable speed, rather than bad work really quickly. Those pre-PMF days aren't a sprint. They are most definitely a marathon, just one with a clear finish line. When I think of great early stage teams I don't think "high output", but instead I think "methodical" and "relentless". They are constantly analyzing the problem they want to solve. They are clever about soliciting feedback. They build prototypes leveraging every useful shortcut they can. However, few of them (again this is my experience) approach these early days with 60 or 70 hour work weeks. The benefit just isn't there.

enjo 12y ago

shrugs The clock isn't ticking that fast. I have some experience here . I was the second technical hire at a company that went on to sell for nine figures. I founded an unsuccessful company. My second startup (as a founder) went on to be a successful and ongoing thing (revenue in the 7 figure range). For the last two years I've been with a nicely growing early stage startup. I'm throwing out my resume to establish that I'm coming at this with nearly 15 year of startup experience. I've rarely put in more than a 40 hour week at any point in my entire career. While I understand the idea that you are racing to product market fit.. I've never bought into the idea that effort is the thing that drives it. You need to be focused. You need to work hard, but you also need to keep your mind and body fresh. It's more important to produce great work at a reasonable speed, rather than bad work really quickly. Those pre-PMF days aren't a sprint. They are most definitely a marathon, just one with a clear finish line. When I think of great early stage teams I don't think "high output", but instead I think "methodical" and "relentless". They are constantly analyzing the problem they want to solve. They are clever about soliciting feedback. They build prototypes leveraging every useful shortcut they can. However, few of them (again this is my experience) approach these early days with 60 or 70 hour work weeks. The benefit just isn't there.