
Evan Prodromou: "As an experienced programmer, I think of a startup as an abusive relationship" - dgl
http://evan.prodromou.name/Journal/3_Prairial_CCXV
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brianmckenzie
I once worked in programming for a non-tech startup, and the experience was
like this guy describes it, only much worse. There were times when I worked
30+ hours straight and my paycheck bounced. The two guys who founded the
company were worthless, lying megalomaniacs who still owe me thousands of
dollars.

It was a very educational experience though. Here's a summary of startup
wisdom I learned from this experience Forgive me if some of these seem like
tautologies.

Don't spend money unless you absolutely have to - don't buy a $5000 copy
machine when you really don't copy things that often. Don't spend several
grand on rent when you could work out of your house.

Don't forget to eat and sleep (once in awhile). You aren't a very good
programmer after 36 hours of straight coding with no sleep and only a can of
mixed nuts for sustenance.

Becoming a startup founder doesn't immediately make you 'somebody', so don't
go around being a dick to everyone. The same rules that apply to everyone else
still apply to you.

Spend your time building products, not doing administrative stuff.

Focus on your core competency. If you're a clothing company who happen to have
developed a piece of inventory-control software in house, you might be tempted
to try to re-sell it for an additional revenue stream. Don't do it! Get back
to designing clothes and just be thankful you have a way to control your
inventory. Amazon seems to be the exception here, they're selling everything
under the sun, even at night.

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nostrademons
This is largely true, but I'd still recommend joining a startup or 5 before
starting your own. Why? Because as a new startup founder, you will make every
mistake your former bosses did. It's much easier to recognize somebody else's
mistakes than your own, particularly when their mistakes prevent you from
doing your job well or make you quit.

Joining someone else's startup gives you a chance to learn from their mistakes
and get paid (relatively little) for it. You shouldn't think of it as a job,
you should think of it as an MBA that's not full of bullshit where the money
flows from instructor to student instead of student to instructor.

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ecuzzillo
Sounds to me like a special case of Sturgeon's Law: of course 90% of startups
are crap. That's because 90% of everything is crap.

~~~
Tichy
Except crap. 100% of crap is crap
(<http://www.tmcm.com/comics/webcomics/179_crap)>

~~~
nostrademons
Actually, 30% of crap is bacteria. (
<http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/061101_feces_brown.html> )

~~~
mynameishere
Actually, 70% of the cells in the human body are E. Coli!

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pg
Unless you have significant equity; then it's marriage.

