

How I destroyed my startup - trucious
http://maxkle.in/how-i-destroyed-my-startup-by-moving-it-to-china/

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mattm
For reference: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
<http://maxkle.in/giving-up-on-europe/> and HN discussion -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1547964>

Unfortunately, the story focuses only on the girl. I would have liked to read
about the actual experiences of doing business in China. He just glosses over
the fact that their programmer was fired. Also, is his co-founder Chinese? I
think that would have been relevant to mention.

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tapiwa
I think the post should have been titled 'How I destroyed my startup by
competing for the only girl in the office with my cofounder'.

Small offices are no places for dramas. A bit different in large organisations
where you are in different departments/buildings. Still a very tight rope to
walk though.

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w1ntermute
The co-founder already had a girlfriend, so I think it was only his fault.

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BobbyH
> "I told him that if he did not go my way, I’d stop doing the programming
> work. He said if I did not go his way, he’d stop the staff from working."

This quote struck me because it's a surefire sign that a project is probably
going to fail. Every time I've seen people holding a project hostage by
threatening to withhold their skills, those projects have either ended in
failure, or even when successful, the people on the projects had very low
morale.

In my experience, it's very important to create a culture where people do
_not_ use unique skills to hold a company hostage. For instance, a designer
should be willing to implement a design that is (to her) sub-optimal from a
design perspective, e.g. when A/B tests indicate that this design generates
more money.

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mmelin
I agree, but in this case I'd say the problem seems to be 50/50 cofounders
with no clear hierarchy for decision making. I've been burned by this too many
times not to insist on a clear discussion up front on who has "last call" on
product issues. Of course something like the quoted interaction is a symptom
of a dysfunctional relationship and probably has very little to do with the
actual issue at hand.

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ericz
What is the role of China in this article other than in the title?

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riobard
Nothing. But it catches attentions.

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xster
You guys fired people based on daily figures? Must be excellent for morale

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rorrr
Do daily fluctuations even matter, especially at startups?

I'm pretty sure even big companies have bad months. It's not a reason to start
firing people left and right.

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riobard
One sentence summary/advice: don't hire a pretty girl.

[edit]: hey why the downvote? go read the story and you'll see why.

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civilian
Reminds me of the naval idea that it's bad luck to have a woman on board.

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alphaoverlord
Are you writing a synopsis of what happened or a romance novel? So far it
seems there are multiple thoughts, and the part about the pretty girl is
pretty tangential.

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GiraffeNecktie
So he was ok with firing the programmer but didn't want to fire the cute girl
who couldn't quite do her job of writing ad copy? Cofounder fail.

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zephjc
tl;dr?

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jerf
Having read the whole thing, I... honestly don't know. Is this fiction, or a
true story told in a fictionalized style? What computer business are they in
that they go from profitable to unprofitable in three or four days and this is
a call to fire the entire company in two days? World's shortest runway or
what?

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steveklabnik
Apparently you are not familiar with maxklein.

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jerf
I really am not. Could you give me at least a hint in what sense you meant
that?

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steveklabnik
That's exactly how he writes. "Is this fiction, or fact? Or stylized,
fictional-sounding fact?"

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puredemo
One of the most poorly written articles I've seen on here.

