How I knew I was done with my company | Hacker News Reader

How I knew I was done with my company

sivers.org

144 pointssivers17 comments

I'm curious how you deal with someone else running your company now. Do employees email you with horror stories of what's going on now? Do you try to keep an eye on the company from a distance or try to keep it out of your mind? Do you try to help the current owner?

Completely out of mind. For me, it was total detachment on that day described. Like moving to a new home, your mind and time is best invested in your new place, not your old.

That was part of my condition of sale I told the 3 companies before we even talked: on the day of sale, I'm gone. No consulting or anything. I had to make a clean break.

How did they respond to that? Obviously, they were still interested enough to proceed with the offer, but do you think they offered less because of that condition? Also, what went into preparing them to take the reins? I guess you probably had key employees that you could transfer your responsibilities to before the sale. Were there any other logistics that went into it?

I left the day-to-day operations in 2002, and had been living in California and London (while the business is in Portland Oregon). So it had been running without me for 6 years.

Yeah I might have made more if I promised to stay with the company, but that was completely out of the question for me.

There were no super key employees. (Some great people, but everything quite documented so someone new could step into any role at any time.) It was just a working system.

The two main techies were probably the most key in explaining the system to the new techies.

I set it all up this way to give myself personal freedom, but it definitely helped for handing over the keys to the new owner.

Interesting.

Being unwilling or unavailable is probably a downside. But being unnecessary is a massive upside.

Do you have any advice about building a business that is, "just a working system"?

This is the best book on that: http://sivers.org/book/EMythRevisited

Then this: http://sivers.org/book/UltimateSalesMachine

I liked the linked article where he tolds why he switched back to PHP after trying 2 years with rails. He doesnt hate Rails, but he loves it because he learned how to write better php.

http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2007/09/7_reasons_i_swit...

Anyone else have any experience with business/life coaches? I can't really see how I'd get anything out of something like that.

Isn't that a lot of what Y Combinator is about? It just means access to someone whose opinion you really respect, that also knows you well enough to give you wise customized advice.

I'd say YC is more like a business partner. They know everything there is to know about your business and offer advice -- but that's because they've been there before and have an invested interest in making sure you succeed. So it's important they're honest with you and guide you as best they can.

But a coach is in a different position. How do you get someone with enough knowledge in your area to provide insightful advice? How do you make sure they're not blowing smoke up your ass to keep you as a client?

My guess is you just make sure you get the best or have an old friend in the business who won't pull punches. In that sense it's nice that something like YC is around for the upstarts that can't yet afford the best or don't have a prebuilt network.

But not every small startup can get into YC, obviously, which I guess is where sites like Hacker News and a good network of like-minded friends can fill in the gap.

I've never hired one per se, but networking is like having a team of them, and you can call any given one depending on your question. It's like having a super knowledgeable coach all the time, no matter what.

Yes. Here's one that is very good (and also has a pretty good website). Spend a little time surfing it to get an idea of the kinds of things they do and what you could get out of it, maybe not now, but someday. I know the next time I launch, this guy's time will be in my budget if for no other reason that to get my concerns addressed by an independent rational mind.

http://ashdalegroup.com/

I've never used one, but I would suspect the biggest value is just having someone confidential and with no conflict of interest that you can just talk to and put your thoughts in order.