Can you work on two startups at once?

3 points·kkt262··4 comments

Do you think it is feasible to work on two startups at once? And I'm not talking about being hired at one startup and doing something on the side, I mean two full-time startups where you are one of the founders.

Steve Jobs did it.

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Personally, I wouldn't but yes it is possible as you said - Steve Jobs did it and Jack Dorsey does it.

However, this doesn't mean that you are Steve Jobs/Jack Dorsey and running two startups at once is hard work. Especially when, most people can't even run one!

There are tons of people's opinions regarding this for instance:

http://tech.li/2012/02/ceo-sundays-running-two-startups-is-m... - Argues its possible

http://learntoduck.com/startups/two-startups/ - Argues its not

FWIW: I'm not putting Steve Jobs or Jack Dorsey in the same boat, I'm just highlighting someone else who currently does it. (Nor am I discreditting Jack Dorsey by saying this - Square and Twitter are both great startups)

It's possible, but I'd avoid it. I bootstrapped a startup while employed at a large (~500 person) company and let the company go in the wrong direction too long because of it. Later I joined a startup where the CEO was still employed at a company he'd founded previously. I don't think either company failed solely because of the other commitments, but we will never know what opportunities were missed because of them.

One at a time. There are only 24 hours per day. It takes a lot of work to make one work.

Most people can barely do one. It takes a special type of person to do both.

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