
Lessons I Learned from Co-Founding a Tech Startup - greenyoda
http://blog.sueraisty.com/lessons-learned-from-co-founding-a-tech-startup/
======
vinceguidry
Paul Graham said something about startups that I think was very, very wrong
for most people. That you "compress your career into a few short years." That
might be true for a very small number of very smart people, but for most
everyone, it's a long road of several failed startups and well over a decade
before they find success. It's like being a musician, only not quite as
depressing. You don't know beforehand what you need to be focused on, all too
often you're buying in whole-cloth to a idea that hasn't been vetted being
implemented by a team that's never worked together and you just ignore all the
risks because reasons and oh god this is too hard to think about so I'll just
focus on what's in front of me.

You only get to compress your working life if your startup actually finds
legs, and manages to find a lucrative exit, and you didn't get screwed on the
cap table. Unless it does, you're working awful hard for what's effectively a
lottery ticket.

Some people really really really need to work really really really hard. These
people would be well-served to do some self-inquiry as to why they need to do
this rather than try to find the right vehicle for their efforts, because that
kind of effort is rarely rewarded, no matter what vehicle you put it in.

~~~
Swizec
> it's a long road of several failed startups and well over a decade before
> they find success

How is that not compressing your career into a few short years? Most people
start working at about 20 and retire at about 65. That's 45 years of a career.

A decade sounds like "a few short years" compared to four or five decades if
you ask me.

~~~
mattmanser
[http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html](http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html)

It says 4 in there, that's the figure Vince will probably be referring to.

4 years is missing a few of your kid's birthdays. 10 is missing most of them.

Or if you're in your 20s, 4 years is missing out on some great life
experiences in your prime. 10 is missing out on all of them.

~~~
notahacker
I'd be interested to know how many YC grads actually successfully exited and
earned out within four years. I'd guess it's a pretty small fraction.

~~~
joncalhoun
You don't need to exit to stop missing out on your family life. Some people
may choose to focus exclusively on work, but there are plenty of founders who
have a life outside of work long before an exit/ipo event.

------
timr
_" It costs roughly 10 times as much for a startup to provide health insurance
for a person in their 50s with a family than it does for a single
20-something. (Just one more thing contributing to the rampant age
discrimination in Silicon Valley.)"_

Maybe someday we'll get to the point where we realize that it's economically
better for everyone to have single-payer health insurance in this country.

~~~
slackson
Putting aside single-payer, what's the rationale for doing health insurance
through employers, rather than individuals paying for it out of their income?

~~~
metric10
It's a hold over from World War 2 wage controls. Offering to pay health
insurance on the side got around them. It no doubt continues because of the
pre-tax benefits. That is, if your employer pays for it then it isn't subject
to federal and state income taxes as well as FICA taxes. Depending on your
income level and state, those could be around as 30-35% at a programmer's
salary range.

~~~
walshemj
I know someone who while working for Citbank was paying around 25% that just
for his insurance (for him self his partners some FBI officer) - makes the
UK's NI at 13.8% seem very good value.

------
joshmn
> Don't sue your attorney for malpractice if he is a named partner at THE
> premier law firm in the Valley. (For the record, I did not do this, but one
> of my co-founders did. He personally sued John Goodrich, of the law firm
> Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Oh yeah, the same guy sued ME and all my
> other co-founders too.)

And...? What happened? Such a cliffhanger!

~~~
autoreverse
Maybe this: [http://blog.sueraisty.com/push-out-founder-
prestock/](http://blog.sueraisty.com/push-out-founder-prestock/)

~~~
namenotrequired
Oh, that mentions that the startup happened 15+ years ago. I feel like that
might've been relevant to mention in this post too... It's a fast changing
world in the valley.

------
rifung
"Some VCs won't believe that a 25-year old white woman (who -- gasp! -- wears
skirts and makeup) is capable of being a technically solid engineer. We soon
figured out that pitches to potential investors went better if I was dressed
like a slob in sweatpants."

Sad but I can see this happening..

"No matter how dreamy the startup, it is not worth sacrificing your health."

I just wish more bosses of start ups felt this way about their employees! But
I suppose that's because they have much more to gain and not much to lose from
making their employees work more than they should.

~~~
pgpkgaew
"Some VCs won't believe that a 25-year old white woman (who -- gasp! -- wears
skirts and makeup) is capable of being a technically solid engineer. We soon
figured out that pitches to potential investors went better if I was dressed
like a slob in sweatpants."

I've seen that one happen, and I had a lesser version of it happen to me
because I dress east coast prep. I started wearing sloppier clothes for some
outside meetings and got treated better. Even inside the company, it took new
hires a while before they realized that I have skills.

SV culture on appearance is every bit as stupid as the culture of the
dinosaurs, it's just flip-flopped. Instead of 'you must dress professionally',
it's 'you must wear unflattering hoodies, t-shirts, and jeans.'

~~~
jchrisa
I think I missed out on funding once for wearing a collar.

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madaxe_again
Many reasonable points, but misses the biggest lesson you MUST learn to have a
chance of being successful at _anything_.

The lesson is simple. It is that you know nothing, and _nobody else does
either_.

On the note of cofounders... I can't understand why more people don't end up
in business with childhood friends. Met my cofounder aged 12. Started our
first business at 13. Then 14, 15, 16... Then 22 - and that one stuck - 31
now, both in years and headcount. Trust isn't something we even think about.
It just _is_.

~~~
kevinmobrien
Agreed on this. My CTO and co-founder is a friend from highschool (~18 years
ago, at this point); we've weathered being teenagers together, and stayed
closed through the trials of young adulthood, kids, marriages, and mortgages.

It doesn't make starting a company from scratch easier, but it does mean that
(a) there are few "hard conversations" that can compare to the ones we've
already had at some point, (b) trust is implicit, and (c) we can communicate
very efficiently and effectively.

If founding is like marriage, then marry your best friend.

------
jksmith
>Order the rug pad for your booth at trade shows.

Old MSFT trick from Comdex/Windows World days. Everybody was always standing
at their cubes because they used double pads under the carpet.

