contagionhealth

LinkedIn is my default resume. If a company/person I'm submitting to pooh-poo's my Google Doc with accomplishments and links to YouTube etc. plus my LinkedIn profile and wants a paper hard copy it's a pretty good indicator the fit/structure probably isn't right for me.

This is a guideline though, not a hard-line determinant.

If the company DOES seem like a good fit and still wanted a paper resume, I just copy/paste my LinkedIn data there.

And, if you want to network with a generally older 'gray hair' crowd, they may not be on Twitter (but probably Facebook) and think Foursquare is a playground kids' game but most likely will respond to your requests on LinkedIn.

Defaulting to public vs private settings is something everyone building an app (or platform) where behavioral data (who, where, when, with whom, to do what) is the potential moneymaker faces.

Interesting however that Facebook after Beacon seems to have taken opposite track, while my full Foursquare checkins show up in Google alerts for my usernames.

Think Buzz is making a mistake here in terms of earning consumer trust, but will the 'average' Google user convert to a Buzz user in the first place?

Wondering about search user conversion rates vs. search+docs/apps/gmail etc. conversion rates to Buzz, and if we'll ever see any stats.

Good point Tichy - not complaining about being a woman, which I very much enjoy. Being a woman doesn't make, by virtue of your sex-linked chromosomes, doing a startup in anyway special. And as to choices, exactly. That's the point of the post (sorry if that wasn't clear). We all accept (or should accept) responsibility for our own choices. I like your closing comment ;). More choices, more challenges. Synonymous?

Exactly! We've built our company based not just on tech, but market needs. I've seen startup friends build kick-ass stuff that goes nowhere because no one knows about it (the marketing and biz/dev functions) 2 years after launch. Then they're demoralized, die off, and go back to a day job and hacking nights and weekends.

Agree, absolutely. If I didn't know my business well enough to close our first partnership with the top 4 US health insurer (paying) to develop an app we designed that will generate two patents, I'd bow out. We've closed a 5k deal, another 10k deal on the books about to close, and taken only 10k in angel money. That's not only understanding the company, it's understanding where the company is headed, and then working with my tech cofounder to implement like crazy til we get there. Plus, 'tech' of any type is a means to an end. One founder working on the tech and one founder working on the rest of the stuff that forms the means to the 'end' isn't always a recipe for disaster.

Thanks Isc 12. I'll quit what I'm doing immediately and work on growing four interesting male parts instead.

Exactly. And in our culture that's usually still women (although more stay at home dads are stepping up - see: http://www.rebeldad.com/stats.htm).

So, as a woman in startup tech, if you choose to have work and family life simultaneously, it means finding a partner who will do that (is willing and financially stable), and/or outsourcing a significant portion of your childcare to family, nannies, etc.

Don't know about "most," some find stable, supportive spouses or partners who are willing to be the steadfast and unconditional types...

Brad Feld (Foundry Group and TechStars in Boulder,CO), for example found this apparently with his wife Amy, but only after losing a first marriage: http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2009/05/feld-weiser-one-on-o...

Hey Tichy - good questions. Never thought this post would end up on HN, so I didn't explicate the problem(s) and challenges systemically.

There's no universal law, but as mentioned earlier, there is a cultural norm, or, as patio11 pointed out, a tendency towards social pathology that rewards 'overwork.'

All startups may not require the long hours - I don't know and can't speak for ALL founders. However, I know many for whom this is true. It's certainly true that in this stage of growth (pre-toddler) for MY startup it requires that amount of work to complete the specific things I have on my calendar.

Ouch. Thanks Dennis. Now if you want to toss a husband my way for an arranged marriage that would be great! <end sarcasm/>

Lots of friends who are docs (and med students) articulate similar challenges with work/life planning.

If your performance metrics are based on project attainment and productivity (trackable) rather than hierarchical position power (or the lack thereof as a PTE post-baby), then women might have a shot at trying both.

In the US business culture, unfortunately I think the cultural 'allowance' for women (and all employees) to work in this manner goes organization by organization rather than sector by sector.

This isn't a universal, however.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/21/men-work-...

In the Netherlands, where I lived in 2007, for example, both parents are given 16 weeks paid leave.

In Chile and Cuba parents are given 18 weeks leave paid at 100%. In Albania it's 1 year at 80 percent. The stats are eye-opening, to say the least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave

The US? Zero paid leave standard, with 12 weeks option to take unpaid leave according to the FMLA, which does not apply to business that employ less than 50 people (aka many startups).

The interesting thing about "startup" social pathology is not just that I fall in willingly (intrinsic motivation to ascribe to this set of normative behaviors), but that many others in the Valley often do the same (extrinsic motivation to ascribe to this set of normative behaviors).

The cultural miasma is this is the way things are done. You can always buck the prevailing culture and be a black swan, but you have to look at the risks and benefits of swimming that way.

And many more folks than me buy in. Many are heavily invested in perpetuating this model because it gives them a level of perceived (rather than actual) control - if they aren't actually forming the startups, and they need a set of ways to evaluate potential success, than overwork may be one of those obtainable metrics you can check off relatively easily.

This means the sausage grinder may always be a sausage grinder no matter the tinge of the sausage coming out on the other end. I have no idea how to go about fixing this other than to begin not by continuing to bitch about work/life balance but to begin to fix my own equation (intrinsic - what are my goals? How will I reach them?) and others (extrinsic - are there talented groups out there who aren't getting a shot because we aren't telling women they can strut in and say "fuck it, fund me?").

I figured I'd start with a more open solution where women are informed about the risks and returns by those who've been there. I've been fortunate enough (for various reasons) that I've been able to get those meetings and hack the existing network here.

If anyone has more concrete suggestions I'd love to hear them - and better yet see them implemented, pronto. The generic "let's fix the sausage grinder model" comments tend to put my teeth on edge because they lack 1. specificity and 2. actionability and thus 3. utility.

Why we persist with collaborative maintenance of the startup 'mythology' or 'reality' (one person's myth is another person's faith system) is, you're right, the interesting question.

I can only answer that for myself.

Early stage, high-growth, hyperactive tech startups where you're doing a new feature release every 2 weeks and an entirely new product on average once every 12 weeks means, sorry, working near 18 hour days.

This model may not be 'correct,' but it sometimes works. And as a startup entrepreneur, my primary interest is in finding things that work.

It's not like I haven't examined a multiplicity of options. I've read 37signals, and used their method for 2 years prior.

Bootstrapping got me to a partnership with a top US health insurer to build a product within 3 months after launching my company, keynotes at Mayo and Eli Lilly, and consulting for the National Board (which administers the USMLE or 'boards' to docs) so I'm not knocking this as a potential solution - and one to which I might return (have a day job, do the startup lunches, nights, and weekends).

The pathology to overwork is a personal tendency which you accurately diagnose. In my case it's been augmented by choosing a role in an early stage tech startup where that group pathology persists.

I'm not sure fixing the social pathology is a viable solution, but like other pathologies, teaching coping skills and how to manage emergent behaviors may be.