Comment by fecak | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fecak | Hacker News Reader

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I had been a recruiter for several years, starting off out of college with a ~200 person international firm for a couple years and then a founding member of a small boutique recruiting firm for about seven years. I eventually figured out that I wasn't getting any value from my partner, so I started my own recruiting firm.

During my recruiting career I was always writing/editing resumes and giving job search advice to my candidates, but the job search advice was always awkward because I had "skin in the game" (potential fees). I never became comfortable with that process.

On the side I started a resume writing and career consulting business, and I decided a couple years ago to make that my full-time focus. At first I wasn't sure if I'd be able to maintain my income from recruiting (wife and 2 kids in an expensive area, special needs kids), but so far it looks like I'm on schedule to actually earn more.

Beyond the compensation, I find the work far more fulfilling. I'm working more hours than I used to, but I feel I'm actually helping people much more effectively. Hearing stories about how a resume and advice got someone their dream job feels good, and I'm also writing for some interesting people both in and out of tech.

Recruiting and resume writing is what entrepreneurs call a "tie shop business." The product is already well-defined, the customers are already well-known, and how to operate the business is already well-known.

Even a software consulting firm is a "tie shop business."

Developing new technology is the polar opposite of a "tie shop business." The product is new, the customers are unknown, and how to sell the product is unknown.

The reason why I state this is that hacker news's users, and Y Combinator's businesses, are developing new technology. They aren't creating "tie shop businesses."

It's important that you know the difference when participating in a forum like this, and deciding what kind of business to start. Advice that applies to a "tie shop business" doesn't really apply to someone who's starting a business to develop new technology.

I expect most users of hacker news aren't creating any businesses at all ("tie shops" or otherwise) but are here for interesting stories and dialogue with others.

YC's portfolio and team may be creating new tech, but HN is a bit of a bigger umbrella from what I've seen, and in my several years commenting here your comment is the closest thing to a "you don't belong here" or "stay in your lane" signal that I think I've heard.

OP's question was pretty open and didn't mention anything about developing technology. I wouldn't offer expertise where I didn't have it, but if someone asks how I started my business I think I'm qualified to answer.

Exactly, was reading hacker news for a while before starting my "tie shop" web agency business. Don't mind that guy, nothing stated only fancy new stuff can be talked about, and yours was an interesting read nevertheless.

Agreed, I enjoyed reading your story and since OP left the question pretty open I thought it fit perfectly.

Want to add to side comments that I've read a few of your posts in Ask HN and generally enjoy them so hope you do feel valued here.

Thanks, and I absolutely do feel valued here. I was a bit surprised by this reply as it was a bit out of left field given what I wrote and the question asked. Identifying as a recruiter (now former recruiter) here was always interesting based on the reputation of the industry, but I haven't had any real issues with the audience.

Thanks, I appreciate your comment.

> Recruiting and resume writing is what entrepreneurs call a "tie shop business."

I'm a (successful) entrepreneur and I don't call any businesses "tie shop businesses." In a quick search, I can't even find a reference to that terminology. That's a pretty condescending label, whether you mean it to be or not. The polite way to make your point is to talk about how certain businesses are designed to scale up rapidly while others are designed to be profitable with steady growth. Ideally, you'd make this point while considering the tradeoffs of each and acknowledging that advice about each is going to be different. Hopefully you'd make this point 1) where it's actually relevant, and 2) without reducing all the considerable effort involved in building and maintaining any kind of business to selling ties.

In any case, it's not accurate as stated. What you're saying is a false dichotomy. Not all companies designed to scale with venture capital are legitimately developing novel technology. In fact, having spoken to many of Y Combinator's founders directly, I would say most of them aren't, and many actually have well-defined markets with which to sell their products. Most "tech startups" are something closer to the application of existing technology than they are to the development of new technology. In contrast, a machine learning consulting firm can absolutely be developing new technology, and it can absolutely have difficulty finding product-market fit.

That distinction doesn't matter much, because both sorts of businesses can encounter significant difficulties, and both types encounter difficulties not subsumed by the other. Most importantly, most users active on Hacker News have yet to build any business. The author of this post didn't specify what sort of company they were looking for advice about. Your "advice" seems utterly misplaced and discouraging.

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