5 Reasons Founders Hate the Question “So What Do You Do?”

1. Smile. It's amazing how many people have a half or full frown when they answer this question. Keeping a positive expression on your face helps send the message that 1) you're interested in your work, 2) you don't begrudge the asker for her question. The result will be less pressure on both you and the asker, because you eliminate the assumption that an inconvenient conversation is about to happen.

2. Be direct. If you're smiling, it comes across as charming. I might ask, "How much time have you got?" or "How much would you like to know?" Neither question is a masterstroke (and some of you might even be thinking the questions are lame), but with the right attitude, you'll be entering a warm conversation where neither party is unprepared. I usually begin my explanation with a brief summary of my product's most interesting user story.

One additional note: If you work at a company with a good deal of access/transparency, ask your CEO or Founder how they answer when people ask them what their company is about. They get asked this question more than anyone, and they'll have several good options to share with you. It will help you model your own response.

Look, if you're starting a business, discusss it with everyone who asks. If nothing else, it gives you practice explaining it and just maybe, that bored guy may turn out to be an expert in the field or a valuable contact. If you can't explain it, the problem is most likely you not them. Find a way to simplify the explanation without being condescending.

Honestly, I don't see how this is any harder than explaining what you do to a non-programmer.

They'd rather hear something like: "yeah, im a junior analyst at Goldman Sachs." or "yeah, im in law school". They can comprehend that stuff a lot easier.

It's great practice, but it just gets really annoying. It's caused me to be a very defensive person at times.

Well as the final response told the questioner nothing I'm not surprised..

I love talking about my projects - you just have to talk about it in a clear way!

There is no such thing as "founders" and "normals". The same scenario's would develop if the founder pressured the PHD Biologist about his research work! It's just social dynamics.

To me, it does not make sense to describe yourself as a "founder", "startup builder" or even "entrepeneur." That is not what you do. You are a founder of something, and that is what I am interested in if I ask that question.

I have no idea whether people actually say something like that, but I can certainly understand someone asking for more information if the answer to "what do you do?" is "I am a founder" or "I work at a startup" instead of "I work for Goldman Sachs." I would!

So, anyway, perhaps part of why you seem to get into the types of conversations described is the way you initially respond.

BS. If you can make an elevator pitch for investors, you can make one for friends and family. If you can't explain to mortals what you do in 30 seconds, I'd say that's a bit of a red flag.

"I run/work for a small company. We're developing software that helps people in business XX do YY smarter. It's a really exciting project, next month we're going to unveil a new feature we think is going to change the way people in business XX think about their work."

.. there is no brand equity attached to our companies. (...) all you have to say is “I work at Goldman Sachs” and you have satisfied this human desire to be perceived as successful ...

I've met someone who works at Goldman Sachs. I know that to be a sign of successfulness, but I have no idea what he does there. He told me, and I still don't know. If his goal is to be an interesting conversation partner, he'd need as much of a pitch as the guy working for "Blippy".

Sometimes at the end of a long day, the last thing we want to do in our “socializing time” is run through another pitch.

Bleh. Socializing is about who you are. If you spend 10 hours a day working on a start-up, that work is part of who you are. Otherwise, you're just a guy with a 10-hours black hole in his day.

If that is the case for you, then you know what? Too bad for you! You should take advantage of every opportunity where somebody shows an interest in learning about what you are doing, if only at the introductory level. I have learned this lesson over the last 9 months after venturing out on my own.

When friends or family would ask what I was doing, initially I would get annoyed because I didn't think they would understand or care, so I would try to side-step the question and move on. This backfires because later on when you are ready to launch or announce something, they have no idea what it is and they are less inclined to be excited about it.

Then, when asked the question, I started to give long-winded speeches trying to explain everything. This turns out to be overkill for most people and they glaze over. After quickly realizing this, I started giving a paired-down version (I even did some verbal A/B testing to see which explanations got the most reaction/understanding).

After being asked this question by dozens of people and having lots of experience explaining it, when it finally came time to give my pitches in front of "people that actually matter" I was very comfortable and adept at it. Practice makes perfect.

Also, as pointed out by HeyLaugingBoy, you never know who the other people know ("oh, my uncle works in the blah blah industry. you should talk!"). The other big lesson I have learned: it really is a small world.

In non-business settings (i.e. not including startup mixers and the like) I give as simple an answer as possible: "internet stuff", usually. If people care, they'll ask.

The worst is when someone starts into a 10 minute monolog, oblivious to the fact that the other person is looking for an excuse to walk away.

http://www.petelatshaw.com/post/392030379/your-startup-idea-...

I think maybe the "normals", who don't read Hacker News every day and aren't immersed in startup culture, just aren't used to visualizing products. It's not second nature for them to consider the usefulness of a product to a market they are not personally a part of.

That said-- I agree with your conclusion... you never know when someone can share an insight or help, so don't hold back!

Pete

There aren't too many things out there sophisticated and ambitious enough to actually be worth doing (or describing) that can also be summed up in a pithy 10-second haiku to appease a frat boy making smalltalk.

For obvious reasons, the laboriousness of such an exercise relative to the level of genuine interest in the details from the audience makes it unappealing.

But I actually love to talk about what I do. The problem is that most "normals" just ask about the tip of the iceberg without really having a genuine interest. That always offends me because of how passionate I am about what I do.

I am usually teased into excitement to talk about something I love only to have the conversation changed.

I certainly hate the idea of "normals" too - and I can easily explain what we do and am more than happy to if you are really interested. Just be sure you are because you might get quite a detailed and passionate answer.

Comment: Thats a really useful article, I was expecting basically a bitch fest for the problems he describes. But it's actually quite sensitive to both the asker and asked AND solves the problem.

A+++ would buy from again!