

Creating an Entrepreneurial Startup Culture - mikekarnj
http://www.mikekarnj.com/blog/2011/10/03/creating-an-entrepreneurial-startup-culture

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jtbigwoo
_"At Skillshare, we believe that an entrepreneur working with us for 6 months
will provide us more value than an employee working with us for 6 years."_

I understand that there can be a 10x difference between the worst and best
coders, so a company should absolutely hire the very best people it can.
However, there's real value to longevity and loyalty. Even very talented, very
driven people perform better in their second or third year in an organization
than in their first as they build domain knowledge and relationships. It seems
like many startups have a kind of institutional ADHD which keeps them from
understanding this.

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mikekarnj
I used those numbers as an example. Not to be taken literally.

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jtbigwoo
I didn't mean to nitpick your post specifically. It was more of a comment on
the attitude of many entrepreneurs. I really liked the your perspective and
the idea of self-directed work in general.

I'm more frustrated with the idea that we're encouraging everyone with talent
to be permanent generalists flitting from one idea to another, never getting a
deep understanding of one organization or specialty. The "find smart people
and figure it out" approach is great if your ambition is medium-sized, but you
can't build the next amazon without eventually needing longevity and
specialization.

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balloot
Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned, but I think it's slightly premature to brag
about your great company culture before your company has done anything of
note.

On that note, the "only hire entrepreneurs" thing is just stupid. Yes,
everyone wants to hire creative people that can do everything well with little
direction. But here in the real world, most people don't meet that
description, and many that do want want to work for you. Then what?

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earplug
I like the idea of a startup within a startup. I'm just confused as to how one
would/can keep the company as a whole on track and moving in the correct
direction instead of it fighting with itself trying to go in different
directions from so many groups within it...

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akat
I agree. not sure how multiple local maximas' would help overall.

