Not Everyone Is “Killing” It: How and When to Admit It | Hacker News Reader

Not Everyone Is “Killing” It: How and When to Admit It

agilevc.com

44 pointsilamont18 comments

I had a strongly religious upbringing, but later in life I transitioned and acclimated to the secular world. When I began working at a startup, the fervency and intensity of the meetings—especially when the CEO or board addressed the group—gave me vivid flashbacks to my religious days. I definitely wanted us to succeed, but I think my background gave me some immunity to the pseudo-religious groupthink that so often characterizes startups.

"If you have thoughtful investors in your company, hopefully they’ll provide useful feedback about how to deal with a difficult situation. And it’s okay if you as the CEO don’t have all the answers when confronting a challenge. But you have to be prepared to map out the options of how to move the company forward, and it behooves you to have a strong recommendation and rationale for your plan."

This doesn't just apply to startupland. In almost any management situation if you're having to point out a problem it will always go better if you have at least one solution ready. This is quite literally how you turn crisis into opportunity.

Not everyone is killing it? Clearly the author has never talked to a recruiter.

I think it says something about the current environment when VCs have to instruct founders on such basic practices as not creating unnecessary panic and being honest with stakeholders. The truth of the matter is that hot markets create lots of founders who simply don't have the wherewithal and fortitude to lead competently.

A lot of founders these days are in their early 20's. Most people in their early 20's lack the emotional development to know these things without being told. Especially when you throw a few million at them.

Responsibility makes people panic until they get used to it.

I mean, imagine being 23 and responsible for the livelihoods and career prospects of some 20 people. Wouldn't you panic?

While I think you're underestimating what young adults should reasonably be capable of, if for argument's sake we accept that "most people in their early 20's lack the emotional development" to act honestly and responsibly, maybe it's not a good idea for VCs to be lavishing so many 20-something founders with millions of dollars in funding?

The cynic in me says it's a lot harder to manipulate someone more grounded and experienced - someone in their 30s or 40s. Doesn't mean everyone who is 30+ is somehow automatically mature, but the maturity (emotional, financial, etc) tends to evolve as one ages.

There may be some of that, but at least as importantly: as people get older they tend to be less delusional about how brilliantly successful their crazy idea is going to be. By "not delusional" I mean "they have a statistically valid estimate of the likelihood of success."

That means they don't found companies as often.

This is not a criticism of 20-somethings who leap into startups--there is no better time to do it--particularly because some of them succeed, and then we all get nice things. But it is in the nature of startups that the odds of failure are so high that the kind of level-headed, staid, steady, sensible person you'd really like to be running a company is the kind least likely to be running it.

It's great for the VCs, since 20-somethings lack the experience to know when they're getting screwed and the connections to push back effectively when that happens.

It's not great for the 20-somethings, but in this model they're essentially considered disposable; burn out as many as you want, a new crop always comes along next year.

Weird coincidence you bring this up. I just found this on reddit: TIL That although we picture the Founding Fathers as old men, many were quite young. By July 4th, 1776, Aaron Burr was 20, Alexander Hamilton, 21; James Madison, 25; John Jay, 29; and Thomas Jefferson, 33.

That is super-interesting; but I bet being 25 in 1776 was more like being 40 in 2015. Not too many people were still students in their 20s (or even their teens) back then.

Thomas Jefferson is the only founder you list who ought to be associated with the year 1776. The others actually came to prominence in the 1780's. That said, they were still young.

To add a few more, Marx was 29 when he wrote the Communist Manifesto and Fidel Castro was 32 he successfully led the Cuban revolution.

I wouldn't panic. I'd realize my task and make it my mission to do it well.

Many say that. Few do that.

Hell, most struggle with something as simple as losing weight.

I've lost 150+ lb so far. I've grown up poor. Supported myself my entire life. Dropped out of school and supported myself by working for myself. I've been against the grain my entire life. I have a need to lead. I realize few people are cut out for certain things, but I really believe I am.

"lack the emotional development to know these things"

Being told things (at any age actually, think of having a conversation with your doctor about a medical problem) allows you to frame and put things in perspective. The perspective is what is important and what can be very helpful. So a more experienced person (who could be older or could have just gone through the hoops) tells you "that's not a problem in fact here is a similar situation ...".

An example is PG's "How not to Die" where he says:

http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

"We avoided dying till we got rich.

It was really close, too. When we were visiting Yahoo to talk about being acquired, we had to interrupt everything and borrow one of their conference rooms to talk down an investor who was about to back out of a new funding round we needed to stay alive. So even in the middle of getting rich we were fighting off the grim reaper."

Nice article, killed it!

$10 million a month... A MONTH!

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