Entrepreneurial Happiness Is Possible
venturebeat.com
venturebeat.com
For the first half I was thinking this was an inspiring story about an entrepreneur who realized he was taking things too seriously and was working himself to death, finding success in peaceful and carefree execution of an exciting idea.
Then came the part about how he got funded, and I came to realize this was more a story about an entrepreneur who won the startup lottery, is happy about it, and realizes that having money and relaxing with a well-funded team is better than working your ass off alone and not being able to afford utilities. Which is of course a foregone conclusion.
Thus for me the final act ruined what would have otherwise been an insightful tale of perspective.
My level of happiness went up WAY before the funding event happened and is much more a result of my lifestyle changes and improvements in balance, clarity & focus then the other way around :)
The examples I gave at the end of "success" included working with amazing people, getting married and having a little baby boy.
Getting funding for my startup is at the bottom of my personal list and is in no way an indication of my personal financial situation (still having debt & working on a very low salary to be able to invest everything in my company and team). Not to mention anything about a "relaxing" new lifestyle :)
Being an entrepreneur will always be a stressful gig. I've just chosen to maintain a balance so I can do this for a very long time without killing myself and making everyone around me miserable :)
As for me, I'm finding that if I really care about being as innovative as I need to be to get my startup off the ground, I must have a hard cap of 40 hours of work a week. If you're truly doing something innovative and technically challenging, breaks and experiential variety are key. Plus it's also fun mix up the staring at math and algorithms with taking the time to build relationships with your prospective customers.
(to the readers:if you're a senior grade person/guy/gal who's strong across math, cs, and engineering things nicely, and youre based in the NYC area, please shoot me an email, I'd love to chat with you over coffee sometime)
And for what it's worth, I don't know the Elastic Sales team personally but nothing I've heard indicates that Steli or any of the rest of them really "have money" in a meaningful sense, or are "relaxing with a well-funded team".
Does initial funding provide a minimal threshold so you can keep the lights on? Yes. Does it really make you any better off emotionally? Hate to break it to you, but no.
Raising a first round of cash takes away some stresses and gives you others, and on balance I don't think it makes a lot of difference in your overall happiness level. The stuff described in the article (getting married, having a kid, taking breaks here and there, etc) does.