

Cult Creation - harscoat
http://blognewcomb.squarespace.com/essays/2010/10/14/cult-creation.html

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kalvin
Lots of gems in here. One humorously self-effacing anecdote:

"At that time we knew that a talented engineer in a tough to get tech was
worth about $1.5 million per head. Thus, I knew with relative assurance that
since we were going to hire at least 70 people with our Series A money, that
our worst case scenario was about a $100 million exit.

If anyone is paying attention, you are now saying, wait a minute! Didn't
Powerset sell for $100 million to MSFT? .... Yup, we nailed our worse case
scenario!"

~~~
pavlov
Reminds me of P.A. Semi, the embedded PowerPC design company bought by Apple
in 2008. Obviously Apple had no intention of using PPC anymore, so their
product was discontinued.

P.A. Semi had 150 engineers, and Apple paid $278 million for the company.
That's about $1.85MM per head. Seems to match the Powerset story pretty well!

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nochiel
I find it mildly annoying when writers co-opt words for their own [marketing]
purposes and then redefine those self-same words in order to validate their
point. I am quite sure this is a logical fallacy of some kind. I'm just not
smart enough to know which one it is. Let me provide an example:

First, the author says,

"Over the years, I've been accused by the press of many things, but one of my
favorites is the articles that claim that I create cults or even religious
orders in my companies."

Then, he goes on to say,

"...by 'cult' what I mean is a group of super high quality people who trust
each other and have similar ways of thinking, learning, reacting, problem-
solving and working together. Further, this team needs to bond together under
a leader they trust and respect."

Well, no dictionary I can find defines cult in that way and the press were
probably not using it in that manner either. In other words, he isn't
addressing his favourite of the "many" accusations leveled at him. Instead, he
is skirting the debate--if there is one at all--and repurposing it in order to
aggrandize himself.

~~~
ZitchDog
It seems to me to be a type of Begging the Question[1] since the conclusion -
'leading a cult is a good thing' - is implied by the premise 'a cult is a
group of people with good attributes'.

1 - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question>

~~~
nochiel
Thanks for that. Related to your reference was a link to "Fallacies of
definition" which I think might also be a feature of this article.

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Dylanlacey
"Engineers Suck at Negotiating, so Don’t Negotiate, Be Fair - from me, after
being pissed off about hiring practices I experienced from bad founders."

God yes. This should just be basic employer-employee decency. Don't fuck
around with people's lives just because you might save a buck. ESPECIALLY when
you're getting much more from them (Which is just how employment goes).

~~~
harscoat
That's one of the points that stroke me most. I was at a company where two
guys same level of competence could have up to 20%! difference in package
because one knew how to negotiate and the other one did not (=was "nice&cool"
imo, "naive/a bit immature" in their opinion). The company was very secretive
about compensations (you always had the impression they knew stuff that you
should also have known, too bad you did not know!). When I discovered about
that (I was remote), my guts really hated this aspect of the company culture,
but then I thought ok maybe I have no idea of what real hard ("winners")
business is. I am so glad this post makes me go back to my 1st impression once
for all. Be hard & clear, but fair.

~~~
Dylanlacey
My contract actually bans me from discussing compensation. I was trying to
come up with a single, reasonable explanation for doing so, and I couldn't.

It basically enshrines the idea of employees not being treated fairly. If you
can't discuss your pay, you can't know you're getting gypped.

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emeltzer
i was trying to explain to a friend yesterday what a "meaty" article is, I
think I'll just show him this and forget it.

1\. Speaking from experience and with expertise as opposed to random
analytical arguments that may or may not be true.

2\. Holds back very little, tons of useful and concrete advice.

3\. Not common sense, lots of insight that leaves you thinking "wow, yeah."

This is the kind of article that makes HN a great place.

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groaner
_The best way to prove to yourself, potential investors and to any potential
future employees that you have a killer idea, is to get a number of A-level
engineers to join full-time with equity-only deals._

Um... given all the advice to never work for equity only, can anyone here
actually claim to have pulled this off?

As far as I can tell, this statement is about employees and doesn't cover co-
founders.

~~~
rdl
I think he's talking about "late founders" -- early engineering hires who have
enough personal wealth from early exits (or spousal income, savings, etc.) to
potentially be founders on their own, who end up joining. In a lot of cases
you give them 83b stock too, instead of options.

Most of what he described is just best practice/common wisdom, although well
presented -- the A-A, B-C thing especially, perks like monitors, etc.

The "unique" points he raised, which I agree with, are salary/budget
transparency within the organization, not trying to pay engineers as little as
possible (but instead having fair compensation ranges without negotiation
required), and minimizing commutes.

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bryanjohnson
This advice is hard earned. Great write up.

We're on the opposite side of the spectrum as a company in that we're not well
known, we're not well connected, we don't have outside capital, and we're not
creating the next generation of search. We do, however, have similar goals of
finding and retaining the best people, building an enduring and rewarding
culture, and continuously exploring better ways to do things. We actually
blogged today about what we've learned as a startup in trying to find the best
people who are also the right cultural fit.

[http://www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com/inside-
braintree/re...](http://www.braintreepaymentsolutions.com/inside-
braintree/recruiting-for-a-start-up-when-youre-not-a-recruiter)

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alexcharlie
Steve was on my board of directors.

This advice is 100% golden and it works.

Favorite advice: Maintain your high hiring bar. This ends up being difficult
in the face of big competition and looming deadlines. Hold out and your team
and product will be much better for it.

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gordonguthrie
The critical thing about have open and public pay scales is that it
incentivises people to make the team better - not make themselves relatively
better by hoarding information.

I worked at a big corporate which had a culture of individual bonuses and it
was a shambles. All employees ended up being 'above average' and the bonus
pool was shared out on a 'project managers pet' basis which sunk any business
improvement techniques or any 'pay now, save later' which are the meat and
drink of cost improvement.

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zeemonkee
Was this the same PowerSet Zed Shaw was writing about ?

<http://oppugn.us/posts/1282122987.html>

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kreek
Nice magazine cover too bad it's straight rip off of The Cult's 'Electric'
album cover.

[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Cult-
Electric_(album...](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Cult-
Electric_\(album_cover\).jpg)

