
Ask HN: What keeps you from beginning your Start Up? - jmagar
Let's set the stage here, as I'm sure most will be expecting a nice motivating pitch about why you should quit your job.  My purpose here is to find a way to keep one of our bright young stars from doing just that.<p>He wants to execute on his planned startup, and I want to provide all the same opportunities a startup offers, within my organization, so that there is no need to look elsewhere for it. So what motivates the decision to fire your boss?  And I do believe that people don't quit their jobs, they quit their boss.  But we should not get side tracked by the "quit your boss" thread: his decision to do a startup was made before he was hired, and he very openly shared his plans with us and we made our offer anyway. He signed, and now the deadline he set on day one is approaching.<p>Is it the opportunity to make more money?  Possibly over a long distant event horizon, but his startup is unlikely to match the salary potential of the next two to three years.<p>Is it ownership / equity?  Stock options are available, thus it is possible to use this incentive to  keep him within our engineering team.<p>Is it responsibility?  His career path can include that too, and I'd be happy to start transferring more  on to his shoulders.<p>Is it influence, decision making, and direction setting?  Well, we kinda fall down there.  Many cooks in this kitchen, and most have greater influence than is available to him.  His voice is heard of course, and great ideas are easy to spot no matter who they come from, but if he expects his voice to win out every time I can't provide any assurances that it will be so.<p>Have I missed anything?<p>Let's not forget the other things that corporate life provides that Start Ups simply can't compete against:  we've got cash which means all your standard developer care and feeding: snacks, beverages, free lunches.  With cash comes profit sharing, job security, benefits, paid vacations, etc.  We've got lots of people in the office too and that adds to your daily life experiences:  co-workers become friends become family. And he's got me, and many others, as advocates within the company trying to show that we are invested in his career and will support him no matter which path he chooses.
======
swombat
Nothing, I'm on my second one.

Oh, and to answer your question, what made me go start my own business is I
couldn't stand the way things were done in the big corp world.

I'm impatient. I want to get things done. I want to achieve things. I cannot
stand the idea of being given orders. I have no respect for authority, only
for competence. I want to realise my potential. The tedious and endless game
of corporate politics bullshit is just a problem to be solved, as I see it.
And one valid solution for it is to get out. This game just isn't worth the
candle. What do you get for learning the ropes of the politics game? More
politics. It's self-defeating. "The only way to win is not to play".

The corporate world also has a well earned reputation for being bland and
boring. All the dishonesty and obsequiousness that comes out of needing to
maintain a "normal" image makes it conforming like a mass of grey goo. Embrace
weirdness and difference. Accept the idea that exceptional people are not
normal. Then maybe it'll be less bland.

I haven't looked back since I quit. Life is so much more varied and
interesting. I only ever do things that I think are worth doing. I work at my
own pace (which is 10x faster than anything I ever observed in the corporate
world). I work exclusively with brilliant people, doing something which I
think is worthwhile.

Even if there wasn't more money in the long term, this is an infinitely
preferable lifestyle.

What about you, yourself, who asked this question? Why do you stick around in
this corporate world? If you're wondering why all these people are leaving,
maybe you should go and find out for yourself. Believe me, it's worth it.

~~~
swombat
Oh yeah, and one more thing...

 _all your standard developer care and feeding: snacks, beverages, free
lunches._

Really? At your company, can I stay in bed or spend the day doing something
else when I hit one of those days when I don't feel like working? Can I work
in my dressing gown? Can I prepare my own food in my own kitchen? Can I have a
10-second commute from my bedroom to my office? Can I have a nap whenever I
want to? A 2-hour nap?

Perks-wise, working in most corporations doesn't hold a candle to working for
yourself.

~~~
mellampudi
Well, I get all of these, except for the preparing food part( which I anyways
can't). And I work for a really big company :)

------
webwright
I don't think startup people are "quitting their boss" (i.e. running FROM
something), but they are rather running TO something that is magical and not
entirely rationale. Statistically/financially, it's a dumb decision to start a
startup-- but it doesn't matter. You can sit down, run the numbers, make
pro/con lists-- but it doesn't matter. You've already lost. Here's what you
can't match:

1) The big win. You can heap stock options on him, but your board will block
you from giving a dev more than 1% or so, I presume.

2) His baby. His own company. A sense of TRUE ownership.

3) A clean slate. New companies/new products are more fun than existing ones
for a lot of people.

4) Having ANY boss. Everyone rolls their eyes at even the best boss SOMETIMES.
The irony is that, if he succeeds, he'll be that boss. But it's a great
feeling to NO MATTER what, be able to fix something that organizationally
broken if you think it's important. To be where the buck stops.

5) Fame/notoriety. Some people are motivated by this. If your startup wins,
he'll be an unnamed dev in a winning startup. If his startup wins, he'll be
the guy the led it there. Either way, it feels WAY cooler to say "I own my own
company" when someone says, "so what do you do?".

Doing a startup isn't a sensible CAREER decision... It's a largely emotional
lifestyle decision.

~~~
thaumaturgy
| 2) His baby. His own company. A sense of TRUE ownership.

I'm surprised that more people aren't making this point.

I think it's common among entrepreneurs to take ownership of some idea -- not
in terms of stock or revenue, but more like parenthood -- and want to see it
through to completion, on their terms, their way.

------
ryanwaggoner
_Have I missed anything?_

Yeah, you've missed everything. It's a nice idea to try and give an employee
what he's looking for from a startup within your corporate environment, but
it's just not possible. Corporate employees exist to build wealth for someone
else. That's just the reality of the situation. There are a lot of benefits
that come with corporate life, primarily stability, but if he wants freedom,
he won't get it working for someone else. When I was an employee, I had to
remind myself that every benefit and incentive was an addicting trap, designed
to keep me from leaving. A steady paycheck will erode an entrepreneur's soul
over time, because you come to rely on it and striking out on your own is that
much harder.

To be clear, I think it's commendable that you're trying to provide a great
environment for your employees, but I think the best case scenario here is
that you'll work hard to keep him, and you might succeed, but something inside
him will die a little and he'll always wonder if he made the right choice. Why
not just let him go give it a shot? I think it'll cost you more in the long
run to fight it than it would to just get a new employee.

And I know we don't want to get sidetracked on this, but entrepreneurs do not
"quit their boss". They absolutely do quit their jobs because they long for
the freedom and rush of creating something on their own, no matter how awesome
their boss is. If you disagree, perhaps that indicates more about the
difference between a corporate and entrepreneurial mindset than anything else.

------
rokhayakebe
Be the first to fund his startup.

This is one mistake employers do. Do not try to retain him. If he wants it
enough (and in this case he does) he will sooner or later find a way to make
it happen.

Join him. Give him office space. You can still use his brain while he is
around.

EDIT: Entrepreneurs should also not be afraid to share their ambitions with
their boss. That is only if your boss started his own business. You may find a
new partner in your boss. Remember that those who made it always want to help
others make it as well. They will see themselves in you and noone can resist
that.

~~~
thaumaturgy
That's really not a bad idea at all. I don't know all of the circumstances of
their situation, but they might be able to set something up where jmagar will
earnestly support and help launch his employee's startup, for a share of the
action. While the startup's getting off the ground, the employee might be able
to continue a few responsibilities at the company.

I know I would have jumped at a chance like that, mostly because I was scared
witless of being without a regular paycheck.

------
chriskelley
For me, it's freedom. And only he can give that to himself. I would say your
best option is to support his decision, but give him a big welcoming door to
walk back in if his startup doesn't work out. Sometimes people with the drive
to do things on their own need to try it first, and maybe it won't work out
for him. Then he will come back to your company with that much more
experience, plus he will be more invested in your company emotionally as you
supported him along the way.

It's hard to lose good people, but even harder to see somebody leave their
dreams on the table.

------
ptn
Im in Peru, so I first have to figure out a way to move to a startup hub and
only then can I start. I'm possibly going for a scholarship to do a masters,
which would delay me (I must finish it, being a scholarship I can't drop out),
but at least would get me there. This is kinda frustrating, because to get a
scholarship I must have good grades, but studying steals hacking time...

In the meantime, I'm honing my programming skills. I've been programming for a
while now, I'd say that I'm intermediate. I know Pascal, C, Python, and bits
of Java, C# and Lisp (I'll look deeper into this one though). My main
objective now is to design and code larger apps.

~~~
anamax
As someone who makes fun of folks who say "{place} is just as good for
startups as SV", I want to point out that you don't have to move to a startup
hub to do a startup.

There are advantages to doing a startup where you are. If/when you move, it
will take you a while to learn as much as you currently know about the
resources where you are now. In addition, you can start now instead of
waiting.

~~~
ptn
There's just no way to rise funds here :(

My plan is to program some big stuff myself, so as to learn about design; read
the code of some open source software, to learn how others design; and program
something from scratch with someone else and submit patches to an OS software,
to learn how to work with other hackers. I hope that teaches me what I need.

~~~
anamax
(1) Don't do a startup that requires raising funds. (2) You probably can't
raise funds in SV either.

While there are many things that are easier to build in SV, there are things
that are easier to build elsewhere.

More to the point, people who build things in SV could almost certainly build
things other places, they'd just build different things. If you can't build
anything where you are, is it really reasonable to think that you could build
something in SV?

------
pavelludiq
I'm still in high school, but this summer i had a chance of getting a job. I
didn't get one, instead i decided that i need to learn to program better and
learn a few new languages. I also learned to draw, and I've been working on my
writing style and my English. I also learned a lot of otter stuff(how to
meditate for example). I don't know if I'll ever get a "real job", but I'll
avoid it if i can. I probably will get one eventually, money is not useless.
We like adventure more, and don't like having a boss in general(or any other
authority figure for that matter). We are not afraid of failure, if we fail,
big deal, we can take it(job security is for people who are afraid of change).
I don't know how many hackers are like this, but from what I read on HN, there
are a lot of them. You should ask your hacker about his plan, he may have good
reasons.

~~~
mrtron
I really recommend you take a real job at some point in your life for at least
6 months.

Some of the best lessons in life come from contrast. Being able to remember
what it was like at a regular job provides a lot of motivation for people to
continue working hard at their own company. You will also learn some good
lessons about what to do, what not to do and make contacts.

~~~
maximilian
One of the "best" corporate experiences I had was when I worked for BMW for 5
months. I now understand how large corporate engineering companies work, and
that I NEVER want to work for one. Sometimes you have to do something that
sucks, so that you know that you don't want to do that and to look out for it
in the future.

------
vaksel
Savings is the most important thing...once you have enough savings you can
walk out.

If you really want to keep the guy around, make it easy for him to do his
startup while he still works for you. i.e. have him spend 60% of the time
working on your stuff, and 40% of the time are free for him to work on his
startup. If he gets that security he'll probably stick around.

And chances are he'll be able to provide the same amount of productivity
during that time.

------
jwilliams
For me it's the need to try and do something for myself, and to do something
that is excellent - something I'm proud of.

I've been in large corporates for 10 years. A corporate can basically never
compete against this kind of desire (which, is actually quite rare).

Even though I've got more senior over the years, you just end up with less
control over more - until you reach the point that you're just a powerpoint
jockey.

It's almost impossible to do something innovative at a large corporate -
because of the inertia and the massive amount of consensus building that's
required to do anything different. Pure design doesn't exist, it's an exercise
in compromise.

That's not meant to knock it. The environment suits many (i.e most) people. It
won't suit everyone though.

Personally, I've never found going over the top to keep someone around is a
good idea - If someone wants to leave to broaden their horizons, I'd encourage
it.

Sometimes they leave and succeed - then they're a great person to keep in
contact with. Sometimes they leave and it doesn't work out - in this case they
sometimes come back, and usually a much better and more capable person for the
experience.

------
mseebach
Have you ever made him do something in a specific way, because of
"enterprise"-reasons, politics and "that's the way we do it" instead of
arguments?

Do you make him run windows, when he'd rather use a Mac or Linux, because he
has to use Visual Studio? Did he ever suggest that you do a project in Ruby or
Python, to be told that "we're a Java shop"?

Do you have bureaucratic rules? Do you make him punch in and out, and log time
down to the minute? Are certain websites blocked because they are not work-
related?

Is the working environment pleasant. Are you six developers and two PMs on
cheap chairs and small tables, in a 300 sq ft office, with hard floors and no
sound dampening?

Is management not only a step up in salary and responsibility, but also access
to unrelated perks like a better chair?

But mostly, I think, it was the "talk the talk" about creative minds, and not
walk a single step of the road, that made sick of that place.

------
noodle
a good idea keeps me from starting my next startup right now.

i've said this many times before here, but one of the biggest things that
prevent people from starting a startup is the instability of the startup. the
family man or person with larger financial responsibilities will usually need
the steady paycheck.

some of the pro-big-company arguments that you make are off the mark.

make more money? yes, in the short term. with the risk of a startup, there's
potential for great reward, especially if the company gets acquired.

ownership/equity? those are nice, but you typically get more with a startup.

responsibility? career path? sure, you get some control, but not nearly as
much as you will in a startup with a small team. you get to do so much more
when working on a startup.

influence? again, so few people, your voice counts way more, especially if
you're an expert at something.

company benefits/culture? they don't even compare. a company can pay for
lunch, great, but that doesn't mean that they understand what the people want
(my company is a good example of that). "paid vaccations"? typical startups
don't track hours and you take off the time that you need when you need it.
just get your work done.

------
maxklein
Offer him a pathway. Making a startup will be hard on him, so if you offer a
soft job and allow him time to work on his ideas, he will stay.

But if he has the bug, he will leave at some point. You can't hold down a
ramblin man...

------
brandon272
Your post in and of itself is why your employee wants to found a startup.
Instead of sitting down directly with him and saying, "What will it take to
keep you here?" and listening to the nitty gritty of what he wants for
himself, which would totally make your post here unncessary, you are posting
here, trying to convince everyone bullet by bullet why corporate life is the
shiz and looking for someone to hand you some magical answer that you can
whisper in his ear to get him to continue working for you.

Look at it this way; people don't leave companies when they:

a) Have a vested interest in staying (they share in the rewards) b) They
believe in the company's vision. c) They believe the company is run by
competent individuals who can execute that vision.

------
ajmoir
The freedom to develop code I want to in the manner I wish to. Enough of the
usual crappy corporate tools/procedures/apathy.

To be judged on what I produce not how many hours I'm in the office.

Rewards equal to my contribution, this is where corporations fall down
completely. If I'm ten times more productive than my team mates why am I not
rewarded in such a manner OR to be more truthful I will not put in any more
effort than is needed to secure my position in the corporate hierarchy. So I
dutifully do what I consider a mediocre amount of work and yet am rewarded in
the top 10%

I couldn't care less for the crappy soda and chips or a paid lunch. Pay me the
money and I'll decide how I wish to spend it.

------
tjr
I like to create new things; develop new ideas and build them. In most jobs,
you are but a cog in the machine, and have relatively little creative
allowance. I just churn out code per requirements, or test code per
requirements, or write requirements per requirements. Not a whole lot of in-
depth thinking seems to occur.

Personal time off, and ability to set my own schedule. In a job, my ability to
take time off to travel, do volunteer work, do research, whatever, is not so
much limited by a lack of money as it is by a lack of formal vacation time. If
I want to take two months off a year, and have the money to do so, then I want
to be able to do it. If I want to set my own hours to best suit other things
in my life, I don't want to be confined to the general expectation of 8-5 M-F.

And yes, money does play a factor. In most jobs, you and your peers make the
same salary plus or minus 5%, regardless of how hard you work or how inventive
you are. If I can work harder and/or smarter and produce something worth more
money to more people, then why should I not reap the financial benefits of my
labor?

There certainly are advantages to working at a regular job, among them fairly
reliable income and insurance benefits and what-not. But even so, employment
can be fickle. If "the economy" turns sour, your job may not be as stable as
it seems.

(Actually, I would advocate spending time running multiple diverse business
projects, to help balance out "the economy".)

------
mooders
This may sound glib, but have you asked him?

Have you explored with him, with you in a Coaching/Mentoring role, where he
sees himself heading; who he sees himself being; what effects he sees himself
making over the next year / 2 years / 5 years / at retirement?

Once you have the answers to those (and he may not have fully considered these
things himself, to that degree of clarity and detail), you can then work
together to see if any options exist where you both get what you want.

------
ComputerGuru
It's an incorrect assumption that you can't work on a startup while working at
a company. If you have a boring 8 hour day job, you still have _sixteen_ hours
left in the day. The first 8 hours may be mind-numbing and leave you exhausted
and incapable of independant thought, but focus hard enough and you can get a
decent 6-8 hours for a quality coding spree _at minimum_. You just have to get
used to the work.

~~~
cperciva
_If you have a boring 8 hour day job, you still have sixteen hours left in the
day._

Of course, you're going to spend 6-8 hours out of those 16 sleeping. And 1-4
hours travelling to and from work. And 0.5-1 hours preparing and eating
breakfast and dinner (I'm assuming you have lunch during your 8 hours at
work). And at least 0.5 hours showering/shaving/brushing teeth/getting
dressed/etc.

 _focus hard enough and you can get a decent 6-8 hours for a quality coding
spree at minimum_

If you only need 6 hours/day of sleep and live five minutes from where you
work, sure. But for most people there simply aren't enough hours in the day to
stay alive while working two full-time jobs.

------
johnrob
A start up is desirable because:

1) Chance for a life changing payday, that could free you from the burden of
working (if that were desirable - I have a theory that working is more fun
when it isn't required).

2) Ability to control how the game is played. You don't want to lose because
you were forced to follow someone else's direction - if you lose it should be
your own damn fault.

If you can create these two things in a big company, let me know :)

------
mdasen
Risk. I'm risk-averse (as most people who objectively have it pretty good
are). I have shit to loose.

Bureaucracy. I hate that I can't just do something. Ironically, the level of
bureaucracy might be less at my job than if I worked for myself because if I
work for myself I have to do lots of crap like dealing with laws that govern
companies. I could hire a lawyer/accountant, but that gets back to Risk.

Sites like this. They make you think too much about scaling and building for a
billion users. Databases don't scale. None of them. You do have to turn to a
dumber object store at some point and loose a lot of query power. I'm moving
past this mental roadblock.

Winner-take-all economies. A lot of what I would like to create isn't likely
to result in money. This isn't because they don't have value. It's because
they aren't good without lots of users. This is the most aggravating. Once
users are using one thing, even if you're better, they just use that one thing
for the same reason that more data trumps better algorithms.

------
hopeless
What stops me starting a business or even working for a startup?

A 6 month old daughter and a wife who's been made redundant. All dreams and
ambitions play second fiddle to keeping your family alive.

My day job was a smallish business that got bought out by one of the largest
IT companies in the world and the birth rate has shot up dramatically since we
were acquired.

------
sjs382
I work 30 hours a week. I'm taking a heavier course load than I ever have. And
to top it off, I'm in a semi-long-distance relationship (3 hour drive) and
make every effort to see my SO.

My current job isn't so bad, either. The pay is peanuts, but it isn't
"corporate" (100-ish employees, but just 6 in my department) and they've been
great about working around my school schedule for the last 4 years.

So yeah, jumping feet-first into entrepreneurial waters is appealing to me for
all the usual reasons, but I just don't have the time to devote to it right
now. And weekends are off limits, too.

I should have more time in the spring, but Spring Fever usually starts early
for me. :)

------
icey
I jump between working for myself and working for other people somewhat
regularly.

Right now for example, I have what I think is the perfect job. The pay is
good, I work on interesting problems, I drive all the dates and functionality;
basically I am getting paid to make all the IT decisions and I have enough
budget to do things the way I want to do them.

But even though I have the perfect job, it still feels like servitude. So, at
some point I'll have the next idea I think is worth striking out to try, and
I'll be gone. It won't be because I dislike my job; but it will be because
it's in my genes to go out to the frontier and pan for gold.

------
iigs
_Is it influence, decision making, and direction setting? Well, we kinda fall
down there. Many cooks in this kitchen, and most have greater influence than
is available to him. His voice is heard of course, and great ideas are easy to
spot no matter who they come from, but if he expects his voice to win out
every time I can't provide any assurances that it will be so._

That's probably the biggest one, if I had to guess. I don't know what this
individual's motivations are, but if he has his heart set on something you're
best not to pull a subtly different direction, the impedance match will
eventually cause something to give, and maybe not on the best terms.

Now, maybe you can flip this from a specific role to a personnel management
pattern.

You've clearly found someone who has been a valuable member of your team. You
might believe that some of the things that would make someone a good
entrepreneur would make them a good employee for your company, and from the
outside, at least, that seems pretty sane. Someone who is intelligent, has
drive, and is interested in all aspects of the business seems like the kind of
person you'd want to have working for you.

If you know you can't hold on to good people like this forever, maybe you
could build a culture of growing people up and out. I don't think it would
take a whole lot -- open, "face-up" handling of the business in the presence
of your employees, a positive attitude towards contractors, mentoring and
maintaining good relationships after they've left, and the opportunity to come
back should the gig not work out and you have a position available, are all
non-cash things that seem to basically be heresy to the standard beige
manager, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. They also are
generally things that you can do toward the end of the employee relationship
where you appear to be now.

Don't throw him out of the nest, of course, but definitely encourage him to
spread his wings. Think of it as putting a little "Sponsored By: OurCo, Inc"
on his brain. He'll either fail at his task and possibly come back as a
better, more mature employee, or he'll soar, and he'll be thinking of your
company in a positive light when he is networking like no tomorrow. Sounds
like a win for you either way. :)

------
briancooley
_Let's not forget the other things that corporate life provides that Start Ups
simply can't compete against: we've got cash which means all your standard
developer care and feeding: snacks, beverages, free lunches. With cash comes
profit sharing, job security, benefits, paid vacations, etc._

These are the kinds of things that "concerned" family and friends will point
out. They're nice things, but I think the arguments about their value just
amount to FUD to a person longing to make a move. They are reasons not to
leave, not reasons to stay.

------
floozyspeak
The security blanket is nice and its probably what keeps most people in their
place in a kind of Matrix mentality. Startups only offer the truth of what you
dare to be vs what the blue pill offers you.

He has you, and all that corporate goodness but thats just it, you have him.
He needs more.

I think only thing you're missing here is the sheer creation aspect. Creating,
manifesting that did not exist before and won't go beyond your napkin sketch
unless you take it somewhere.

------
lallysingh
Depending on how far you're willing to go with this, there is the best of both
worlds. Give him command over a group. If they get somewhere, offer the chance
to lead a spinoff.

The other thing that'll hold a hacker in a job is a hot wife and a good family
life. A man's focus can change over life, and one can prefer to put their
heart there instead of in the industry. Of course, there are few legal ways to
work in this area...

------
unalone
I'm slow to develop mine for the worst reason in the world: I can't program.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I have a coder's mind. I'm content with sitting down
for hours and nitpicking code until it works just fine. It's just that I don't
know the languages I need to know, and so development happens slowly.

It's happening, don't get me wrong. But if I could actually program, this
thing would be out in a week, rather than a month or more.

~~~
olefoo
I'm wondering if you have the same issue I do, the day job is pulling more of
your programming bandwidth than you think it is.

In my case I'm dealing with a virtual river of shit, and when I get home, I
don't want to touch the computer at all. And when I do make time for
programming, it's very hard to get into flow because it's usually 'sandwich
time' stuck between other responsibilities.

~~~
unalone
I've got something similar. I'm in college, just started, and there's a
prevalent feeling that spending hours in your room not being social is a bad
thing. When I DO get in front of the computer, it's harder to push forward.

Progress is happening, though, so I'm optimistic.

------
edw519
_Have I missed anything?_

Yes.

No matter how pretty you make your diapers, they still have _your_ baby's shit
in them.

Entrepreneurs want to change their own babies' diapers.

~~~
hopeless
And parents just want to be able to afford diapers - so a risky startup with
long hours and little immediate pay, is very hard pill to swallow. Startups
are great in your early twenties (I worked in 3 -- all bust now) but your life
(hopefully!) won't always remain as carefree. For most people, 30's and 40's
are a different matter altogether.

------
ph0rque
To join the several comments here: let him work on his startup part-time
(20-40%) during work hours, as long as he gets his responsibilities done. I've
quantified this idea a bit in a blog post:
<http://blog.ezlearnz.com/post/40316576/the-6-hour-workday>

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jsmcgd
I would agree that most people quit their boss and not their job, there's
empirical evidence to support this. However it isn't true all the time. I'm
wondering if what he wants to do more interesting to him than what he is doing
at the moment? Does it scratch his itch?

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donniefitz2
Freedom. You can't keep someone employed that values freedom. A startup offers
freedom from being a "wage-slave". It offers liberation from indentured
servitude and if that is what your employee values, nothing you do will
satisfy him.

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Flemlord
If you don't think you can stop him, don't try to fight it. Let him quit, and
work out a part-time consulting deal. If you really think so highly of this
guy, offer to become his first client and maybe invest in his new venture.

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omfut
I have been working for more than a decade in startups, and when folks as me
why im still continuing doing so, simple answer is- the passion and the drive
to work on something innovate, that, someday will change the world.

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gasull
Procrastination.

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brm
Sometimes it not as much about money as it is control of your destiny and the
ability to do interesting work

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dawie
20% to do whatever you want (as long as it makes things better), kept me in
the corporate environment ...

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mannylee1
Knowledge. I believe it is very important to know the code behind the startup.

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anamax
Why is it so important for you to keep him?

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rthomas6
A killer idea.

