
A Non-Techie Tries to Build a Tech Company - scottkduncan
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/15/a-non-techie-tries-to-build-a-tech-company/
======
morgante
This reads as how to run a company poorly and how to build a terrible company
culture.

Some gems:

> they all finished work each day at 5:30. I remember watching “The Social
> Network” and admiring the passion and intelligence of the group of young
> engineers.

Yep, a fictional movie about the founders of a social network is definitely a
good benchmark for how much your engineers should be working—not standard
professional hours.

> We’ve been through three [lead designers].

Yes, blame the designers for ridiculously high turnover, where you have 3
people in the same position within a year.

> a deficiency that I’m sure they sometimes exploit

Right. Not trusting your technical employees and assuming they are trying to
exploit you is a fantastic way to inspire passion and trust. In fairness,
since she seems to be a pretty big fan of exploiting others, it's natural that
she'd expect the same.

> they worked day and night

That is not a desirable thing, it should be considered a mistake in planning
which must be avoided in the future.

All in all, it sounds like she's building a terrible company to work for. Not
surprising that she's (according to Crunchbase) only raised $500k.

~~~
namenotrequired
Great comment, and I agree with all your points, except:

> Yes, blame the designers for ridiculously high turnover, where you have 3
> people in the same position within a year.

She doesn't blame the designers anywhere. The only one she blames even
implicitly is herself, in the paragraph that follows on the one you quoted.

> Not surprising that she's (according to Crunchbase) only raised $500k.

You seem to be implying that raising half a million dollars is a failure, but
perhaps you're still using irony there.

~~~
hkarthik
> You seem to be implying that raising half a million dollars is a failure,
> but perhaps you're still using irony there.

I don't know that I can call it a success either. It's like gaining admission
into a competitive university. Hard to pull off for many people, but just the
first step on a long road to success if everything goes well.

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ironchef
"I’ve also discovered that nothing is more motivating than a high profile,
non-negotiable deadline." Sweet jesus no. If you don't understand what is
required do NOT sign your team up for that. That's what causes death marches.
Now if you had the team already analyze the opportunity and prototype "the
hard parts" then by all means go for it :)

~~~
mattm
> Within a few months, we had a team of four. Development seemed slow and our
> live site was littered with bugs. Our team didn’t seem driven; they all
> finished work each day at 5:30. I remember watching “The Social Network” and
> admiring the passion and intelligence of the group of young engineers. My
> team didn’t look like that.

I think the real lesson is she hired the wrong team. In all fairness, it's a
tough thing to do seeing as she had no technical background to evaluate them.
Finishing work at 5:30 is a good thing but slow development and a site
"littered with bugs" is something that shouldn't happen, especially with such
a small team.

~~~
pan69
This is a great example of misaligned expectations. She seems to think that
developers are just as passionate about her startup idea as she is, be they
aren't, even though they might say it. For these developers is just another
job. By simply paying people and giving then a "task" to perform you don't
create an intrinsic involvement. This is why you need a technical co-founder.

By the way, the "posse.com" that's up there now is already a pivot from the
original idea which was something with bands and music etc, can't remember.

------
watwut
"Our team performed brilliantly in the month leading up to our launch at the
South by Southwest festival; they worked day and night. Now I look for major
events that we can all work toward every three months."

Essentially, she is punishing success and hard work. I worked for a company
similar in this aspect.

Employee got given tight high pressure deadline. When he made it, he was
rewarded by another tight high pressure project. And so on until employee
either did not made some or left.

The company had two types of employees: active newcomers and slow everyone
else. It is not exactly the same dysfunction, but kind of similar. I think
that she severely underestimates what this kind of treatment do with people.

~~~
goshx
Came here to make the same comment. Bosses often believe that this move is
motivational. Once in a while, for a good reason, everyone will try to
accomplish the tasks and do more for the company. But doing this just for the
sake of seeing everyone sweat, IMO, is asking to lose the team.

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Domenic_S
TL;DR:

Founder makes mistake after mistake, blames other people, then finds a famous
& rich engineer, suddenly stops making mistakes.

~~~
swalsh
I was going to join the hate sphere here, but getting Lars, of all people
interested in your vision enough to work on it (even if its simply an advisory
role). She's clearly has something going for her.

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invalidOrTaken
I am not a "techie," unless you'd like to be the "bookie" or the "accountie,"
or perhaps "presentie."

Who am I kidding: these engineers have earned their place by subordinating to
someone like this.

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devanti
According to LinkedIn the CTO left the company

~~~
hga
Was this recent? From the path she described I'd expect an event like this
sometime earlier.

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nowarninglabel
Wait, she also works for the NY Times as a columnist (according to her
LinkedIn profile)? Is this a blog or an ad?

~~~
_zen
She's an NY Times columnist writing about her start up experiences. She only
has one start up, so it's the one she talks about in all her blog posts.

~~~
patrickshampine
She also links to her personal blog on the posse navigation. This girl goes
full circle of self promotion..

~~~
hagbardgroup
Stop thinkfluencer-shaming!!!!

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zht
Please don't put your engineers (or any one else in your company) on death
marches.

------
____a
The founder/author is a woman. There appears to be confusion with pronouns in
most comments here.

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mixologic
Wow. That was torturous to read. Then I saw how often that the nytimes lets
her spew this awful mentality: [http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/author/rebekah-
campbell/](http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/author/rebekah-campbell/)

------
seivan
Another person without domain knowledge nor technical skillset to write the
software needed. Maybe the person in question does sales.

But nothing warrants death marches.

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funkyy
"To continue reading this article, please log in or register for free."
Like... seriously? Its 2014, not 2004...

~~~
jpwright
Newspapers still gotta make money even in 2014.

~~~
funkyy
Well I thought most of online newspapers make money with advertising and
offering corporate services and tools... But hey, what do I know.

~~~
jpwright
Getting people to sign up for an account is part of their advertising
strategy.

------
notastartup

        It’s an unwritten law of nature that development always 
        takes longer than predicted. Because I’m a non-techie 
        boss, my engineers know that I don’t understand how much 
        time they will need to complete a task, a deficiency 
        that I’m sure they sometimes exploit and that I find 
        incredibly frustrating.
    

A) Doesn't understand domain, doesn't understand the problem.

B) Automatically assumes some weird laws of nature.

C) Indulge in paranoia and mistrust to compensate for ignorance.

D) Blame others and get frustrated.

E) Write an article about it

~~~
ldng
F) Profit. Literally. Sadly.

------
michaelochurch
She sounds horrible and I hope she fails.

First, there's her focus on hours.

 _Our team didn’t seem driven; they all finished work each day at 5:30. I
remember watching “The Social Network” and admiring the passion and
intelligence of the group of young engineers. My team didn’t look like that._

She wasn't unhappy because of the bugs. She was unhappy because her team
didn't _look_ like a star team. (How many stars would put up with her
attitude?) What a fucking narcissist.

Second and related, there's her use of _The Social Network_ to get a sense of
what programmers are supposed to "look" like. That's offensive on so many damn
levels I can't keep track of 'em all. The kicker, though, is this:

 _Because I’m a non-techie boss, my engineers know that I don’t understand how
much time they will need to complete a task, __a deficiency that I’m sure they
sometimes exploit__ (emphasis mine) and that I find incredibly frustrating._

What. A. Fucking. Bitch.

New York is swarming with non-technical douchebags whose connections get them
some seed capital and possibly enough resources and client contacts to get
started, and maybe even hire a few talented but clueless engineers who'll
throw long hours after a bad idea. Avoid those types. They're horrible. They
aren't successes in their own sphere (if they were good in the business game,
they'd be in finance or consulting) and they aren't technical either, so you
can't learn fuck-all from them. A great business partner, you could learn
from. The sad fact, though, is that the rock stars of the business world have
zero interest in the VC-funded startup world. Tech 8+ like me can't find our
equals in the VC-funded world (Damaso Effect) because Biz 8s are CEOs'
proteges and portfolio managers at hedge funds.

Not everyone who isn't technical sucks, for sure. However, the business world
sends its rejects to manage nerds and nowhere is that more apparent than when
one reads articles like this. There are great Harvard and Stanford MBAs, but
they don't seem to end up as "business co-founders". They go into private
equity, hedge funds, and CEO-protege type roles in business and stay there.

Finally, if you're going to found a _tech company_ , learn technology. Learn
to code well enough to understand _why_ software engineering is hard (so you
don't become that douchebag who thinks he could do the programmers' jobs with
a year of training), learn how to deal with 140+ IQ people, learn how to
identify useful problems, and learn enough about software culture that you're
not using a fucking movie for pointers.

~~~
jonmrodriguez
> What. A. Fucking. Bitch.

Although I agree with your general assessment of Campbell, I think you should
change your wording here.

It's not right (IMHO) to use gendered insults. That sounds sexist, I think.
Much better to just say "What. A. Fucking. Asshole." and leave gender out of
it.

~~~
michaelochurch
I used the right word for her attitude. There are probably 10 usages of
"bitch" and some are gendered and legitimately offense, while others are not.
(I've called men "bitch" before.) This use of the word "bitch" means "mean-
tempered person with unearned wealth or social standing". It's not gendered.
You could use it on an ill-tempered male trustafarian and it would work.

~~~
gknoy
It might simply be what part of the country I grew up in (southern CA), but I
never "bitch" used in that way about men. It had an entirely different
meaning, similar to serf or 'gofer' \-- whereas when people used it about a
woman, it basically meant the same as "asshole".

I hardly believe I've typed these words out. Blech. In any case, I think that
for a large part of your audience, and perhaps US society in general, "bitch"
definitely has a gendered connotation -- even if you did not intend one.

