

Ask HN: Are you still employable after being a founder? - dear

Starting a business is risky.  Most people would rather choose to have a comfortable life by working for an established company, taking a salary and enjoying life after work hours.  For entrepreneurs who make no salary, do all the work ourselves and live in uncertainty everyday, do you regret what you have been doing?  Would you rather now quit and apply for a job somewhere and be done with it?  Do you think have been an entrepreneur makes you unemployable?
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b0ttler0cket
(b0ttler0cket):

I think this question has a lot to do with risk and reward. Graham addresses
this (at this point, it's a bit of a blur. Whenever I hear something like
this, I just randomly pull out some of this reasoning).

I may not be able to paraphrase exactly, but in regards to your question about
regret and risk, the reasoning may have gone something like this:

1\. Age is important. Younger people can afford to take more risks for the
simple reason that they seem to have more time to mitigate any damage from the
mistakes should they fail. Also, younger people are less likely to be parents
already or have a family.

2\. Attitude is important too. Some of this comes down to what you can better
tolerate. Startups are like sprints. Employment is like long distance running.
Do you want to cram the bulk of your expendable energy into a few years of
intensely hard work (and stress) with an uncertain payoff, or do you want to
work moderately with a very decent payoff and still have the time to enjoy
family, a relationship, long walks in the park, jogging after work for as long
as you want, weekend-long trips to the beach. I feel like a lot of people in
HN, if given the choice between startup and employment, would say startup
hands-down. But if you look at it this way, I believe the decision is a little
harder for many people.

3\. Maybe the most important. You have to believe in yourself, your product,
and your ability to come up with ideas if you want to do this. I cannot
picture a scarier situation (in regards to startups) than starting one full of
doubt, anxiety, and overall insecurity. If you do this, you have put all your
chips in the pot, keeping in mind that there's no bluffing and no turning back
(well there might be turning back, but you definitely shouldn't be planning
to). You have to have the cards to back up your all-in. Having the cards means
having the guts to stick it through, having some level of smart, being adept
at troubleshooting problems, and having a fairly good idea from the start even
though it's subject to change in various degrees.

I believe (1-3) addresses your concerns about regret to commission of a
startup. In terms of whether a startup makes you unemployable, I do not see
why a startup would bar you from further employment. Potential employers could
point to the fact that there may be a hole in your CV where you weren't
employed for a year or two, but you can easily describe your startup
experiences and couple that explanation with why that experience makes you
more valuable as an employee. Remember, you still have to be able to speak on
your good points with ease and decisiveness whether or not you've engaged in a
startup.

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nostrademons
I ended up with a job at Google about 4 months after folding up my startup, so
no, I don't think it makes you unemployable. As long as you keep your skills
current and don't just sit on your ass, the skills you learn as an
entrepreneur are valuable at a lot of firms.

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danieljeff
Being employable is generally more about who you know then what you know. If
you are just decent at being a founder then the activity of building your
business will increase who you know exponentially.

Based on that rational I would say that founders generally become more
employable.

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narayankpl
No I do not think have been an entrepreneur makes you unemployable. You could
be unemployable for a lot of other reasons. But it is likely that some
entrepreneurs may not be happy in this situation and should an opportunity
arise, they might go for it again.

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dear
Isn't it the point? Unless the prospective employer is very open minded, an
entrepreneur could be viewed as unwilling to work under a boss, and likely not
a long term employee.

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JT123
Most of the time companies appreciate the fact that you have experience
running something, even if you to close your startup eventually.

