

A sustainable start-up - meisterix
http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/06/management

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guylhem
I guess the european definition of a startup is different that the american
one.

European startup : able to buy back shares, carefully select employees, refuse
8 digits funding because it doesn't want to go public, rent a country house so
that the funders can keep working in this ambiance.

American east-cost startup : cries for funding, hires like crazy wishes to
sell and go public ASAP so that the funders can no longer work.

I don't know, maybe it's partial, but these remark aside, I'd guess the
european startup might be able to do this because it's profitable, which is
the #1 thing. Everything else is eye candy.

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davidw
I guess making broad generalizations from one article is kind of useless.

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DannoHung
Hmm... I wonder if there'd be people in the US willing to relocate to the
middle of nowhere for a job that promised some good perks plus an extremely
comfortable wage relative to cost of living (but not necessarily any larger
than in San Fran or something).

I do kinda think that having a tech company set in the middle of some rustic
mountains or something has a sort of crazy "code from an adirondack chair"
appeal.

I'm not sure _I_ would, personally though. I enjoy living in urban areas a
little too much.

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thaumaturgy
There are advantages and disadvantages. (I live and work in the Sierra
foothills, I've organized a local group of fellow hackers, I've been working
on building a startup community here.)

For me, the foremost advantage has to be lack of traffic. Nearly all of the
essentials here are a 5 minute drive or less. The traffic flows well. The
locals complain about a "traffic jam" somewhere if they have to wait in line
at an intersection for more than thirty seconds. It seems like a silly, minor
thing, until you've lived here for a while and then go back to southern
California or the Bay Area for a bit.

It's fairly peaceful here. You can get a beautiful home, with no neighbors in
sight, surrounded by trees and tranquility, for a fraction of the cost of such
a thing elsewhere. This has a huge effect on stress. I live "downtown" \--
literally a stone's throw from main street -- and I can still sit in my
backyard and code in the sunshine and have it be fairly quiet and distraction-
free.

There are farmers' markets and lots of other great community events. There's a
sense of community, overall, that isn't really present in metropolitan areas.

It's 45 minutes from one of the Pacific Crest trailheads, if you need to get
away. Or, drive for 20 minutes to one of the local rivers and relax in the
water for a bit.

There are downsides though. There's a perception that there just isn't any
talent here, and that makes some things difficult. There is talent, but not in
the quantity you'd find in Palo Alto or Chicago or New York. We recently had
an incubator / funding group meeting, where a member related that an investor
told them directly that he'd never fund anything from our area code.

Some of the residents are a little ... odd. That's the case everywhere, but
they're a little more noticeable here. They write lots of letters to the local
newspaper. Our regional Craigslist is embarrassing.

We have some fantastic people that work hard on bringing culture to our area.
We've had some big names performing at the hall across the street from my
house. Bill Cosby, this week. A couple of really good theater companies. A
local top-notch juggling club. Ultimate frisbee. We're one of the top downhill
mountain bike destinations in the world (supposedly). We've got a great
concert group that brings in talent from around the world. (I got to see
violinist Stefan Jackiw play, it was indescribably beautiful.) Still, we're a
bit short on "culture" \-- art museums, ballet, clubs, that sort of thing.

Overall, I much prefer it to urban living. But, it lacks the image and style
associated with the hubs of activity in metropolitan areas, so I expect it's
difficult to convince people to move.

If anyone's interested in re-locating to about an hour from Sacramento, please
feel free to contact me. I'm close to a number of local business groups, and
I've just started building a partnership with a nearby capital network. I've
been here for long enough now to know where a lot of great stuff is. I'd be
happy to give you a tour and some introductions.

~~~
rdouble
Know anyone who needs an iOS developer in Tahoe?

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thaumaturgy
I can check, I have a couple of contacts in that area. Send me your contact
info (my email's in my profile).

edit: Sorry, misread that as Truckee for some reason. If Truckee's OK with
you, offer still stands.

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hkarthik
This sounds like a great company, but I think that in the VC-funded US startup
ecosystem, this would be negatively described as a "lifestyle business".

Which is sad, because I would love to build a business like this. However I
think it has become exceedingly difficult to build such businesses and compete
effectively in any industry with VC-funded competitors.

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mtoddh
I've seen this come up before and I wonder, why do lifestyle businesses have
such a negative connotation? It seems like building these sort of sustainable
businesses would be a lot more appealing to most people (or at least to me)
rather than the VC-funded/start-up lottery approach you refer to in the US.

~~~
hkarthik
For some people, working at a startup is synonymous to working crazy hours for
a few years and getting a big payout in the end. This is the compressed
schedule that PG talks about in his essay. In such startups, there are
multiple people (including non-founders) who take part in reaping the benefits
of the startup's exit. Because everyone gets some benefit, you have the
ability to attract better quality talent.

In a lifestyle business, there is the viewpoint where a non-founder is
effectively working to support a founder's lifestyle. There is no promise of a
good payout and at best, only a steady income with a predictable workload. For
some individuals, this feels undesirable since you may end up with a less
passionate, lower talent workforce due to the incentives you are offering.
Also if the market opportunity grows at any point, you aren't well equipped to
take advantage and you can easily get overtaken by a more mobilized, funded
competitor.

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rmoriz
excellent job!

Afaik United Internet / 1&1 — the company they had a bad marriage with — still
uses the original code and makes a lot of money with it.

Personally, I would not approach 1&1 with any idea after reading that story.

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ryanSrich
> “The decision to buy back shares was really to keep our people on board”

So are these guys really still a startup? Once you hit profit and pay off your
debts it's a little strange to continue calling yourself a startup.

~~~
rfnslyr
A startup is a company meant to grow quickly. They grew, _quickly_. From 2011
to 70 employees and turning down 8 digit figures? I consider them a startup,
they scaled very fast.

