Going from engineer to entrepreneur takes more than just good code [audio] | Hacker News Reader

Going from engineer to entrepreneur takes more than just good code [audio]

stackoverflow.blog

37 pointscborenstein10 comments

I'm a software engineer, left my job 18 months ago to make my startup solo.

Reflecting on all the learnings I had during the journey, the hardest part was the context switching. I've been experiencing coding, user interviews, demos, business development, making marketing materials, posting online and engaging with posts, thinking about the next step, expanding my network, sales follow ups, support, learning about the market.

All these things happen during the day, so it is really hard to focus on one thing.

The other parts, mostly the first time founder's mistakes. Focusing on building instead of marketing and channels. This is however about to change as I learned the hard way from my mistakes.

Same, it is very hard to do lots of small tasks related to managing the company or very small bugs fixes / tests, and then deep dive / being in the flow for hours for coding..

Yeah, switching between different modes in the same day (or same half day) can be super scattering.

I try to select 1-3 main objectives for the week and then chunk the work I need to do into things that require being in a more extraverted mode of talking with folks vs more introverted deep dives.

E.g. on the day I did this podcast recording, I did user conversations bc I was in talking to folks mode.

On other days, the focus will be more writing focused - user insights / roadmap priorities / code.

This is the only way to manage it I think, context switching across entire domains is only really effective on a weekly cadence, otherwise I find you end up spinning your wheels. It does make reschedules and delays extra painful though.

Entrepreneurs have to wear many 'hats'. Trying to switch hats many times every day just makes you lose focus. Task switching has an overhead.

I came up with a method that has helped me devote a whole day to a given task without neglecting other necessary tasks for too long: https://didgets.substack.com/p/shortcuts

I find having to switch between different roles is also quite energizing. There's a variety to my days that just plain feels good compared to staring at code for 8 hours a day.

Yes, it does. After 5 start ups and 20 years later. Know your market and how to reach them. You can have the best engineering if no one knows about it they can’t use the service/buy the product. You can have the worst engineering/product in the market but with good marketing and sales you can still be profitable.

From the department of the bleeding obvious

Do tech companies hire for engineers who write good code, but completely ignore their entrepreneur skills? (And does this depend on company size)

Why the heavy emphasis on leet code; why no also add a "leet entrepreneur" aspect to it as well?

IME, big tech companies have some entrepreneurship-adjacent values that are evaluated during interviews.

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