

Working hard or hardly working? VC-backed startups vs. Bootstraps - slackerIII
http://www.jacksonfish.com/blog/2008/03/11/working-hard-or-hardly-working-vc-backed-startups-vs-bootstraps/

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simianstyle
This isn't 100% true, i'm working at a VC-backed startup and i wouldn't say
that there's a lot of pressure on me (as a developer) to work 90 hour weeks
and stuff. Although to be honest, i'm not exactly sure how smart our VC's are.

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mixmax
I like the site design.

Very different...

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hillel
Thanks for all the comments.

@edw519: We're certainly big fans of revenue. We even have a non-trivial
amount of it (for a 3 person startup). :) The whole point of the post is that
we don't believe anybody has reliable predictive power over when that "non-
refundable vote" will show up in your bank account. And because of that,
submitting to artificial deadlines on when the revenue should arrive can lead
to overworking the team. Make sense?

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edw519
Yes, it makes perfect sense.

"we don't believe anybody has reliable predictive power over when that "non-
refundable vote" will show up in your bank account"

Neither do I. But if you do things right, you can make a pretty good guess.
There's a big difference between building something cool and hoping it sticks,
and being directed by those who would buy. A lead, of course, is NOT a check.
Obviously, you must know this already.

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hillel
Agreed on all fronts. Of course, doing ad-supported projects in the consumer
market make the lead-to-sale connection much more tenuous/indirect.Whether
that's a logical path is of course an entirely different debate. ;)

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mmrobins
I think this article applies even for established companies regardless of
where the funding comes from or if they're a startup. I have a friend who
decided to take a 20% pay cut to work only 4 days a week and now feels more
productive and happy, whereas another friend I know prefers working 60-80 hour
weeks and then taking a month off. Either way, it seems obvious that even the
most productive, passionate people need downtime to recharge.

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TrevorJ
Revenue masks what no amount of money can buy: Motivation in the heart and
soul of a human. The kind of motivation that leads people who believe in a
dream to give blood, sweat and tears to a project and come back for more with
a huge smile on their face.

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edw519
Interesting approach, but funny that he never mentions the single key word
that makes it all possible: revenue. Whether you're bootstrapping or not, the
best way to verify your concept AND position yourself to run a marathon is to
FIND A CUSTOMER. Putting a team together, launching, getting into yc, taking
serious investment - these are all great milestones. But there's still nothing
quite like depositing a customer's non-refundable vote into your bank account.
That's the day your world REALLY changes.

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brlewis
That day came a long time ago for me, and yet I still feel like I have a long
way to go. There's a big difference between having paying customers and having
a steady stream of new customers.

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edw519
Yes, but not as big as the difference between having paying customers and not
having paying customers.

You made it over the biggest hump. Best wishes making over all the rest of
them.

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adduc
I could hardly read the article because of the font size and face choice.

