undefined | Better HN

0 pointssokoloff6y ago0 comments

It sounds like you shouldn’t go to a startup. I’ve done a mix of both (from #1 hire out of 2 total engineers all the way to a Fortune 25). Across the board, I’ve found the smaller the better (more enjoyable, more learning, more energy, more urgency, better colleagues).

Yeah, there’s no formal time laid out to do step X in the course of development. There’s the chance that you won’t make payroll someday.

It’s definitely not for everyone, but when you get a good team together on a good project, it’s fantastically energizing.

0 comments

munk-a6y ago

I'd rather educate the population on the pitfalls of startups so that people going into them are less naive and so that the experience of working there can be more enjoyable and fairly compensated.

I have really enjoyed working at small companies as well - not two person startups working on hopes and dreams, but companies under a year old that are struggling to stablize their offering of a product that they know there is a market for. Startups can be lots of fun, they can also be a grind trying to keep up with shifting customer requests - especially if you find yourself with a single dominant customer that knows they can push you around. Start ups can buy you an island or you could make 60k a year for three years and then be let go immediately prior to an IPO. There is an immense amount of risk there and I'd like to see some shifts in startup culture to provide a bit more assurances since the experience can vary wildly.

Maybe employees at small companies need to be guaranteed (i.e. by the government) a portion of that company for their work, maybe work days need to have a hard limit on them - maybe there just needs to be more VC funding sloshing around and given away in small doses - 200k to twenty companies will produce a lot more success than 4m to a single company.

sokoloffOP6y ago

What problems do we see that are evidence that government intervention is needed or would be helpful?

I see a lot of people very much willingly freely entering into contracts that are beneficial overall for society. That many startups fail and few result in king’s ransom payouts for employees who put up no money to form the company seems ok and preferable to an environment where government has a heavy role in picking startups, regulating work, or otherwise mucking things up.

If a couple of my buddies and I want to work together and want to work as hard as humanly possible at it, why ought that be disallowed?

modo_mario6y ago

The implication of it being you and your buddies being that you won't get shafted if it goes well or shafted more than is reasonable if it doesn't.

kasey_junk6y ago

In my experience it’s the team more than the size/lifecycle of the firm. I’ve worked on teams hitting on all cylinders in large and small companies. Similarly I’ve had bad teams in those environments and all sizes in between.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse