Comment by TruthElixirX | Hacker News Reader

Comment by TruthElixirX | Hacker News Reader

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>lots of potential-employees-turned-founders

If there is trouble finding people to hire because they are all out starting their own companies that means one or two things:

1) There is an over supply of management. Developers/engineers are able to manage themselves effectively enough that they do not need to spend their time enriching someone else.

2) Engineers are turning to their own business plans because that is the only way to get adequately compensated.

I think #2 is more likely. I believe we are seeing the start of a shift towards engineers making as much or more than the management/CEO types. Engineering bargaining power is on the rise and will only continue to get stronger.

Nah. You're assuming they're finding success doing this. Most of them aren't.

It's a relatively young trend. There's enough people getting funded, and having pretty nice exits to attract loads of developers to heavily prefer founding. Also, the heavy hiring market means that if things don't work out there's a soft landing waiting somewhere.

The truth regarding #2 is that the vast majority of these devs will make far less from these ventures than they would if they showed up at GOOG. It's cheaper than ever to start a company, seed capital is pretty easy to come by.. so why not roll the dice? That's the mentality.

Unfortunately I think all of the furor and entre-porn makes being a founder look more than a bit easier than it is. I think lots of these kids would benefit from a year or two at another startup to get some hands-on experience and mentorship, but I think as an industry we're also a bit more fascinated with youth than experience at the moment.

At any rate, I don't agree that either of your points are major contributors. #2 comes close, but being compensated for founding and running a business (and taking the risks to do so) is very different than being compensated for writing software for someone else's business.

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