

Reflections on YC and Moving Forward - sohailprasad
http://sohailprasad.com/reflections-and-moving-forward

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j_s
TL;DR:

    
    
       > I'm extremely excited to announce that I've joined Zynga
       > as their Product Manager for Real-Money Gaming

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guylhem
I hate to say that, but after reading the article I get the bad feeling that
you're not really hyped about joining Zynga.

It's a great company doing great products.

You say that you realized doing a startup was not doing what you love. I fear
you are unconsciously doing the same mistake - doing something you don't love,
because in your own words:

"I'll be honest: I realize that Zynga is no Charity: Water. I'm not going to
be improving someone's everyday life like Dropbox (students, teams, everyone),
Instacart (everyone), Amicus (nonprofits), or Gumroad (content creators). But
..." no buts.

Social gaming may be less ambitious but they do it perfectly and that alone
makes it a worthy goal.

Love it or leave it.

EDIT: with your reply I think I now better understand your move. I was just
worried- we sometimes do the same mistakes. I'm very grateful to friends who
have avoided me doing the same mistake too many times :-)

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sohailprasad
Valid point, though I'm psyched to join Zynga.

To clarify: I loved building Hiptype and building a startup from the ground
up. I still believe in Hiptype's vision, but as we wrote in our post, "In the
[...] world of start-ups, [...] being too early is the same as being wrong"
(<http://sohailprasad.com/what-we-learned>). When deciding what to do next, I
realized that I didn't want to just "do another startup" for the sake of it.

I wrote about elements of improving someone's everyday life because it's
something I keep in mind for my endeavors in the future.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to join the RMG team at Zynga,
and trust me, I'm really excited about what we have in store. If there was any
place I'd rather be, I'd be there.

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pedalpete
'My real, “ultimate” goal was never merely launching a product (after all,
anyone can do that)...'

Oh if only that were true. I had dinner with a friend last night who has just
become the lead on a project where the two founders dropped out and
essentially handed him an opportunity because they just couldn't see through
to launching it.

I've launched probably 40% of the projects I've worked on.

I think that is a big difference between those who do and those who talk.
Those who get it done see launching a product as just a small step that
anybody can do. I wonder if those who are successful also think. Is it our own
thoughts of the size of the challenges that lead to our failures/challenges?

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MicahWedemeyer
Thanks for sharing your story. It's important to realize that "doing a
startup" is not necessarily the same as "doing what you love". Picking a
project that has the right mix of personal passion and monetizability is a
very tough problem.

Good luck in your ventures!

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mediasavvy
Real Money Gaming? The word is gambling.

To say you're "not going to be improving someone's everyday life" is an
understatement.

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cllns
Heads up, there's a typo in the first sentence: achieveing -> achieving

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sohailprasad
Got it. Thanks!

