

The Startup Hustler - alagu
https://elasticsales.com/blog/2012/05/07/startup-hustler/

======
mjackson
The need for a "startup hustler" is a myth. Of all the startups I know of out
here in SF and SV, I can't think of any good ones that have needed this kind
of person around.

The part about impatience is especially dangerous. Being impatient with your
business is a good way to produce something of low quality because you just
didn't take the time to get it right.

~~~
astrofinch
Well, Microsoft sold an interpreter they had not written yet...

But yeah, I'm having a hard time coming up with many famous entrepreneurs who
seem like a good fit for the hustler stereotype. My guess is that you need a
certain amount of hustle to be in the game at all, but you don't need the high
level implied by the term "hustler".

~~~
pinchyfingers
Richard Branson, Felix Dennis, 50 Cent, Neil Patel

~~~
freshfey
Mark Cuban.

~~~
jason_tko
Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates

------
xfax
Why are we, as a community, having these "epiphanies" about how to start and
run a successful business? The functions and skill-set may have changed, but
the core principles that drive an entrepreneurial undertaking have not. For
over a hundred years.

Sometimes it seems like we believe that we are paving new ground, when all it
is is that we never bother to learn from those who have traveled this road
before.

A "hustler", as the article defines, should be the function of everyone in a
startup, even us "hackers" (if we can come down from the pedestal).

------
zacharyvoase
I really don’t like the word ‘hustler’.

<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hustler>

And the word ‘hacker’ is nothing like the word ‘hustler’: it doesn’t involve
any sex trade connotations, and has a well-established meaning related to
productivity and creative pursuits.

As a side-note: if we _actually_ want to address the gender imbalance in the
tech industry, it’s a bad idea to appropriate words that mean ‘pimp’ and give
them positive connotations.

~~~
13rules
Really? The primary definition on the page you linked is "One who hustles:
especially somebody who pretends to be an amateur at a game in order to win
bets."

The secondary and tertiary definitions are pimp and prostitute.

I have never associated the word "hustler" with a pimp and never even heard it
used in that connotation, and I doubt most people have.

I'm with you on the gender imbalance and being sensitive to all persons, but
let's not go looking for things that aren't there.

------
jzd131
I am curious of their business model. Do you pay hourly for the "hustlers" or
do you only have to pay when they bring on customers. I think for this to
work, Elastic Sales would have to vet their customers to make sure that they
had real business models with sellable products.

------
jason_tko
I must admit to being a little disappointed to not see this article get as
much traction as I expected on HN. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and I would
love for HN to talk about this side of business and startups much more.

------
jacoblyles
The problem with hustlers is when they leave out the "values" part. Endemic to
the hustler personality is bending the rules, and often discarding them
altogether.

~~~
jason_tko
Would you have the same concerns about 'hackers'?

I'd love for HN to redefine 'hustler' without the negative connotations much
the same as we have redefined 'hacker'.

------
its_so_on
I agree with all this, but isn't there a better word than hustler?

(Which normally has quite negative fraudulent connotations that we're not
tapping into here.)

~~~
EricDeb
I honestly think "coming up" in drug-dealing or as a rap-star are analogous to
running a successful startup. In both professions the system is trying to
quell/control your rise to success and it takes an extraordinary amount of
willpower/talent/luck to overcome it.

~~~
its_so_on
Be that as it may, I don't want to succeed and have my friends and family
think of me as a hustler - an $80k job as a programmer beats that. Being CEO
is, and ought to be, far more respectable. We should be happy that it's as
"easy" as it is for the guy who only has $500 to his name and invests it in
drugs to sell, gets customers and builds his capital until he's balling. I
have some "respect" for that business. We're lucky ours doesn't depend on
being illegal, or even ripping anyone off - we should try to hold on to that
respect and build it. If nothing else, so that other people will consider this
path more seriously, and so we can be taken more seriously as compared with
other business people who didn't build up from scratch.

~~~
sneak
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_Peo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_People_Think%3F)

