
CEO of Svpply: I have no idea what I'm doing - j2d2j2d2
http://pieratt.tumblr.com/post/5450242474/my-job-pt-1-i-have-no-idea-what-im-doing
======
marcamillion
I am very grateful for this post. One of the most common pieces of valuable
feedback I got before starting my company (as a sole founder) is that I need
to keep going no matter what - especially in times of self-doubt.

I always considered myself to be confident, and self-assured (not obnoxious,
just confident)...but starting a company is a completely different cup of tea.
I have both a Computer Science degree + an MBA. I learned Rails on my own and
I thought that would be the hard part. Just to learn that transitioning from
hardcore product development to sales & marketing is even trickier than I
thought.

When you think about all the promises you have made to people, and things you
have sold in various ways, it's perfectly natural to get self-
doubt....especially given that things will NOT happen exactly the way you
planned. This. Happens. A. LOT.

Self-doubt is one of the most unspoken about aspects of starting a company and
I am glad that Ben has so courageously spoken about it so publicly.

If you have never done a startup before, nothing can prepare you for the
experience fully. I read every PG essay, most of Founders at Work, almost
every other bio/story of most if not all of the tech founders from Fairchild
Semiconductors to Facebook, watched dozens - if not a hundred+ - of Mizergy
interviews, understand finance & economics (I can explain the differences
between a Collaterized Debt Obligation & a Credit Default Swap), also know
most of the fine points of the standard term sheet (including to focus less on
valuation on more on things like liquidation preferences, etc.), know enough
legalese to understand most contracts, I built teams from scratch, recruited
people to work with me on a project bigger than myself but under-resourced,
hell even worked at another startup before...but having done all of that...I
still wake up every morning and there are MANY things that I am tackling for
the first time - and it makes me doubt myself.

Most people won't talk about it, but I think we need to start being real with
ourselves - for the health of the startup community. Especially for those of
us that don't have investors or many mentors, or don't live in the Valley, or
are not YC-alums.

So Thank You Ben. For being so honest. For being so real.

~~~
lionheart
Completely agreed. I'm a sole founder as well and my friends keep telling me
"wow, you really know your stuff" but in reality I have no idea what I'm
doing.

I spend all my time in a state of confusion.

But after a while you get used to it, actually. And you just keep going and
learn as you go.

------
compay
It's a shame so many of the comments here are criticizing this guy for not
lying more.

~~~
rudiger
Witholding the truth isn't lying.

~~~
jpk
This is an attitude I've never agreed with. Say you're an investor. Would you
rather this CEO put on an I-know-what-I'm-doing face, and imply that he's got
this all under control? Or would you rather he be upfront about his lack of
experience but determination to get it right by learning and surrounding
himself with smart people that can help him? Maybe he fails, maybe he doesn't.
At least you know what you're getting into.

Dishonesty is dishonesty no matter how you cut it.

~~~
dasil003
> _Would you rather this CEO put on an I-know-what-I'm-doing face, and imply
> that he's got this all under control?_

Up front in my office or up front in a public blog? I certainly wouldn't want
him scaring off potential deals with over-the-top candor.

> _Dishonesty is dishonesty no matter how you cut it._

This is a ridiculous assertion. If you walk around saying every true thing
that comes into your mind at best you'll be treated like you have Tourette's,
and at worst you'll be a complete pariah. Honesty and integrity tend to fall
in the "know it when you see it" camp for most people, but the criteria are
far from black and white.

~~~
mey
You lie for PR. This blog post seems to be great PR, going for an honest
approach to the realities and approaches of heading up a company. What
potential deals is he scaring off? Instead a group of intelligent individuals
are now exposed to not only him, his integrity, and his product. I had never
heard of svpply before today.

I call that a PR win.

------
achompas
I'm pulling for Ben, if only because svpply tries to solve a problem
(universal Internet wish list) while generating a _metric f---load_ of data.
If they do it right, they could develop an amazing recommendation algorithm.

------
invalidOrTaken
I liked reading it, and I can't help but root for the guy.

That said, startups don't need _people who like them_ so much as they need
_people who trust them_. As an investor, customer, or employee, I do need to
know that the founder can tell what problems are on the horizon, and is
brutally honest about which ones will be challenging. But I also need to know
that he'll take care of them, or if not, that he'll hire someone who will (or,
if an employee, he'll tell _me_ to do it).

But founders aren't superhuman, and the money involved in successful
acquisitions is so high that there are a lot of "companies" working on
marginal ideas---ideas that _might_ be big, or they might not, often depending
on factors beyond founder knowledge. And at this point I think VC's have to
own the responsibility for investing in a high-risk industry.

------
mloc
Have you heard of svpply before? (I have not). Now you have. This is what this
post was written for.

------
kickme444
Developer here - If I were about to interview for a dev job at svpply I would
surely find this blog post and promptly cancel my interview. No way am I going
to go to work for a guy who has no experience doing what he is tasked to do.
This is kinda scary.

~~~
ecopoesis
Every CEO has no idea what they're doing the first time they're a CEO. Most
don't know it. Many won't know it even after the been a CEO for years.

If I was applying for a job at svpply, I'd be happy that CEO knows what he
doesn't know: it's much better then someone thinking they know everything and
not having a clue.

------
Meai
I have no idea why someone would post something like this, and I can only
attribute it to complete lack of responsibility and quite frankly: lack of
common sense. Do you want your company to fail? Do you want it to perform 2%
less than before? Because that's what you are doing right now.

~~~
hamner
F--- that. He approaches his position with humility, an understanding of what
he doesn't know, and a desire to learn it. Instead of reveling in whatever
success his startup has had, he's candidly looking forward to learn what he
needs to grow his business.

~~~
Meai
Which he should do in private.

~~~
18pfsmt
I simply disagree. I believe that good companies will head in this direction
of transparency. We all know that all humans have faults, and acknowledging
them upfront goes a long way with some like myself.

TBH, you sound like my 75 yr old father that ran a $2B business for the last
23 years, and I guess I hope that attitude goes away with our elders.

~~~
billforsternz
Puzzling, you make it sound like running a $2B business for 23 years is a
_bad_ thing.

------
ditojim
it isn't smart for a ceo to be publicly open about these weaknesses, but it is
brutally honest, and i respect that. you may gain more than you lose from this
post, but in general i have found that confidence in your ability to get it
done and figure it our means everything, and that telling people you don't
know what you are doing creates FUD in an organization.

~~~
erikpukinskis
He appears to be supremely confident in his ability to get it done. He's just
admitting he doesn't have a lot of experience, and doesn't know exactly how
it's going to play out.

If you're bald you don't get dates by pretending you're not bald... you get
dates by not _caring_ that you're bald.

------
markbao
_This_ is running a startup.

------
mikeleeorg
"He just summed up the last 3 yrs of my life" said a friend and fellow
entrepreneur. So true, so true.

Every CEO was new to the job at some point. So was every founder. What he's
saying is no mystery to any of us entrepreneurs. He just happened to have his
entry picked up on HN ;-)

(Not to diminish what he wrote, of course - cheers to his honesty!)

------
spencerfry
I've met Ben a few times in New York City. He's a very level-headed, honest
guy. This blog post speaks wonders about his character. We need more people
like Ben in our industry and fewer people that write blog posts trying to blow
smoke up their own ass.

------
keeptrying
It'll be interesting to see if the next round of investors bring up this blog
post.

Its not really a surprise that when doing something you've never done before,
your a little lost. Thats normal.

But the buying public dont want to hear that. It bursts their bubble about
CEOs.

~~~
jaxn
To be fair, the buying public isn't reading that post. Also, CEOs as a group
already get a pretty bad rap for wage disparity and dishonesty.

I think thenpost was courageous ansnsmart.

------
stevenj
Keep calm, carry on.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1571427>

~~~
rokhayakebe
Leadership is about managing other people's panic attacks, as well as yours.

------
jimbobimbo
This epitomizes the problem with fresh-out-of-school "founders" who view their
startup as some sort of a post-grad experience. The guy mentally still is in a
high school, but is supposed to be a responsible adult running a company.
Every businessman has challenges running their business, but not every
challenge is something that has to be known publicly. Business is supposed to
be ran from the quiet office, not from the confessional booth.

If I would be an investor in this guy's company, I'd be really pissed off.

~~~
kerryfalk
No one so self-aware that they can openly discuss their shortcomings and their
fears is "mentally still in high school".

Discussing them openly does have consequences, though. Especially for those
following you who may not see it in the same light. As shown in the comments
of this thread many are vicious against it and see it as weakness. In my
experience, though, those who do share the same frame of mind as the OP (Many
of whom are very successful leaders) see it as a strength.

So I partially agree in that perhaps it's wise to keep it to close confidants
I disagree that this is something that needs to be rallied _against_.

It's lonely at the top in a startup. Figuring out where to go can destroy you
if you let it. It's like guiding a ship through a thick fog (The doubt) and
the only thing getting you through it is the lighthouse (Your determination to
never give up and belief in the idea) and the skills you've developed to steer
the ship away from the rocks to get to the lighthouse. I'd doubt anyone's
ability to get through that if they _weren't_ unsure and constantly
questioning themselves. Over-confidence is the killer of great performance.

------
h6165
Another developer here - I found the post honest and refreshing. Will soon
apply for a job at Svpply.

------
jamesjyu
And ironically, they're currently down because they forgot to renew their
domain.

~~~
phil
Works for me.

------
mikecuesta
Best of luck Ben, I know you'll make it. You're awesome bud.

------
sk_0919
I'd love to hear PG's take on this.

------
jstewart
At least the site itself confirms the CEOs statements -
[http://svpply.com/search/products/a%20ceo%20who%20knows%20wh...](http://svpply.com/search/products/a%20ceo%20who%20knows%20what%20they%20are%20doing)
:)

Seriously though, refreshing to hear someone be so honest about what we all go
through. Who didn't have panic attacks when they first started out?

------
wildmXranat
Bait and switch article of the year. If I was linked to svpply, I would give
him a phone call and a stern conversation would commence.

~~~
leftnode
If you were linked to them in any significant way, wouldn't you already know
this? I'm sure his co-founders know he's inexperienced, investors certainly
should, so it's probably not a surprise to any of them.

I do appreciate the humility and openness.

------
create_account
Bubble Alert!

Nothing says _bubble_ more than this:

A guy with no experience, no vision (at least none he's shared -- perhaps the
entire article is some kind of viral PR experiment), gets funded!

~~~
mtgentry
Nah. 500k investment for a product as great as Svpply is fine. And Ben has
loads of vision, he created the site!

