Hacker News Reader

Comment by cryptoz | Hacker News Reader

This dichotomy, and the realization that it can fuel smart people to use their abilities to do amazing things in the world, is what upsets me most about the startup ecosystem. I'm a programmer. Writing weather software doesn't seem like work to me. However, since going through a startup accelerator, I'm supposed to all these things that are very much "work" - and it gets me down. Things that are important, for sure, like pitch decks, financial modelling, market research, raising capital in general. They're distracting me from the things I like doing but I do them because they're necessary for the business. My "fun work" quickly became "work that I don't like doing", and it's hard to stay in love with your startup after a lot of that.

I wish there were a way for startup founders to do what they love doing, and not what the VC/fundraising cycle tells them they should do.

If someone can solve that problem I'd be really really happy.

View on HN

I knew some folks at Google who were very content to stay an engineer at the bottom of the org chart and watch the people they mentored get promoted above them, because they understood that what made them happy was writing code and solving tough technical problems, not managing people or playing political games. I always respected them for that. Same reason that Steve Wozniak was always far more of a hero to me than Steve Jobs. It both takes more courage and provides more satisfaction to know what you like to do and figure out how to spend your life doing it than it does to become really good at what other people think they wish they were doing.

That said, I think startups will always be hard, for everybody, because no matter what you're good at, you will have to do a lot of other stuff to make them succeed. That's probably why the financial rewards for them are so high. Good partners can help at this, but maybe the sort of person who's naturally suited for a startup is simply "someone who likes to get good at a lot of different tasks".

Somewhat-related book quote:

> Van Atta was no more than five years younger than Leo. Leo suppressed profound irritation—he wasn't this paper-shuffler's ninety-year-old retired Sunday school teacher, damn it. He was a working engineer, hands-on, and not afraid to get them dirty, either. His technical work was as close to perfection as his relentless conscientiousness could push it, his safety record spoke for itself... He let his anger go with a sigh. Wasn't it always so? He'd seen dozens of subordinates forge ahead, often men he'd trained himself. Yeah, and trust Van Atta to make it seem a weakness and not a point of pride.

--"Falling Free", by L.M. Bujold

To this day I will stay at the bottom of the org chart being an engineer cause that's where I want to be. -Steve Wozniak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJif4i9NRdI#t=290

- multi millionaire and Fusion IO Chief Scientist and touring speech giver, Steve Wozniak,

I respect Woz for doing that but I think his case is a bit different since he was the co-founder of the company. If you stay at lower rugs, then doesn't it limit your technical decision making power? Or does one need to be indifferent to the philosophical aspect of that and be content with programming?

I think it actually is possible for startup founders to take the route you're talking about. Check out this talk by Lew Cirne (CEO of NewRelic): http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3367

He basically talks about how much he loves programming and problem solving, so when the company grew, he just hired people to do the parts of the CEO role that he didn't want to do.

You could get a "Business co-founder" while you focus on the technical side.

Yeah, that would be awesome - our startup has three co-founders: me, a designer, and a CTO. So even though I'm the initial programmer, idea guy, and CEO, I'm also the business role at the moment. We'll hire a CFO+others...once we raise funding ;).

It seems like you need a business co-founder, and on a positive note, it's relatively "easier" to find a business co-founder than a technical co-founder. Good luck.

Simple solution: go work for someone else and let them worry about all the infrastructure so you can write code.

No then he would be writing code for something he doesn't like.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com