Ask HN: What happens to startups with legitimate A players?

3 pointsrwillystyle1 comment

I've worked at half a dozen companies over the course of a decade, and at each one there are 2-3 guys who are head and shoulders better than everyone else. I'm wondering what would happen if you stuck 10 of these "A" players in the same room for 3 months? And no, the ivory tower mouth breathers at google/amazon/apple don't count as "A" players.

View on HN

You get the same dippy dynamics as you do with any other randomly assembled group of people. 2 of them will utterly fail to perform for a reason that has nothing to with the startup, 5 of them won't perform because they're too busy being machiavellian to each other, the remaining three will get something done until one of the 4 budding Sun Tzu's stabs them in the back. If you're lucky the three guys who were doing the heavy lifting finish building the product before they become entirely disillusioned.

Not to be cynical, but few companies have succeeded with that strategy because monkey issues get in the way. People with amazing technical skills can get completely sidetracked by stupid political games.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com