

Ask HN: What it is like to join a startup founded by serial entrepreneurs? - msoad

Have you worked for a startup founded by serial entrepreneurs that sold a couple of startups to big companies and started a new one with that money? Since they don&#x27;t have funding issues it&#x27;s a bit different. It&#x27;s also different because founders execution capabilities are proven.
What it is like to join such companies?
======
invinceable
It is very rewarding in the sense you can get multiple startups worth of
advice. I've worked for two startups in the past several years, one with a CEO
who had never sold (or scaled) a tech company. The other had a founding team
with several acquisitions between them.

I heard many times "well something like this happened at XYZ company and this
is what we did and it didn't or (or did work". Granted many problems are new
with each venture, they all had a vast set of knowledge and startup
experiences between them. I learned a lot by working with them and hearing
their reasoning behind decisions.

Their network was also very, very strong as a result of having been around the
block. This made for easy access to almost any company we needed to speak
with.

It is also neat (and I learned the most) to be able to communicate on a very
high level in all discussions. It was a totally different experience from the
prior startup where I had to preface everything with a breakdown of the basics
first (this is what SEO is and how it words).

------
Bahamut
It depends on the startup - my company was founded by serial entrepreneurs who
created companies that sold for big acquisitions, but the founders still took
on VC money a little later.

By the time I joined mine, the founders left - I don't presume the reasons,
but the company is currently headed by a CEO with a passion in the space and
the founders as advisors & board members. The company feels like any other
startup I've been at, high pressure with products that at one point were
dangerously close to failing without some herculean efforts to reverse
technical debt, create a pathway to scalability, and timely releases of new
products/features despite waterfall planning.

I have found that engineering gets the shaft, just like at most other
companies. True leadership is appallingly missing, and heedlessly put
companies at risk...but I digress.

------
crdb
I've had one client that was a serial founder, I think 3 companies already
sold.

It was really different from working for "normal" first timers. He was much
faster, more responsive and more likely to understand things like scope creep
and technical challenges encountered ("more common sense" might describe it).

It was a real pleasure. I'll probably offer a discount to serial founders
going forward...

NB: it might not mean the company "doesn't have funding issues". This founder
(and many others I know) took external money because it makes sense
financially. Park your savings in real estate and stocks, and take the much
better terms investors will give you because of your track record. He was also
quite careful with it.

