- cult-like obsession with working "hard" that amounts to pressuring people into burning themselves out
- have to be around people who act like everything is great and they're killing it all the time even though in reality running or working for a startup is super stressful and you're usually teetering on the verge of failure
- being compensated in the non-fungible scam that is options instead of equity or shares
- don't know whether you'll still have a job tomorrow
- make less money than you would at a bigger company
Some of those things appeal to some people, and the SV hypetrain tries really hard to act like they're great but mostly they're objectively bad.
I believe that 3/5 of these are avoidable though:
- People who work 60 hrs/week aren't much more productive than people who work 30 hrs/week most of the time. Productivity per hour drops off considerably for jobs that are cognitively intensive. Plus it's unsustainable except for a tiny sliver of the population.
- Unfortunately, my experience in raising money is that it's largely theater, and you have to pretend like everything is great all the time. That act ended up seeping into the rest of my interactions with people because there's a tendency to turn into whatever you pretend to be. I've had to make an effort, but I believe it's possible to stay true to myself and not become a caricature. I'll report back on how that works out for me after a few more years.
- The whole private equity system is fucked for employees and I hope crypto fixes the fungibility issue. In the meantime, anyone who pays their early employees in options should be ashamed of themselves.
Obviously, a startup simply can't compete with a big company on salary or stability, but being honest about the reality of the situation and offering real equity can help.
- cult-like obsession with working "hard" that amounts to pressuring people into burning themselves out
- have to be around people who act like everything is great and they're killing it all the time even though in reality running or working for a startup is super stressful and you're usually teetering on the verge of failure
- being compensated in the non-fungible scam that is options instead of equity or shares
- don't know whether you'll still have a job tomorrow
- make less money than you would at a bigger company
Some of those things appeal to some people, and the SV hypetrain tries really hard to act like they're great but mostly they're objectively bad.
I believe that 3/5 of these are avoidable though:
- People who work 60 hrs/week aren't much more productive than people who work 30 hrs/week most of the time. Productivity per hour drops off considerably for jobs that are cognitively intensive. Plus it's unsustainable except for a tiny sliver of the population.
- Unfortunately, my experience in raising money is that it's largely theater, and you have to pretend like everything is great all the time. That act ended up seeping into the rest of my interactions with people because there's a tendency to turn into whatever you pretend to be. I've had to make an effort, but I believe it's possible to stay true to myself and not become a caricature. I'll report back on how that works out for me after a few more years.
- The whole private equity system is fucked for employees and I hope crypto fixes the fungibility issue. In the meantime, anyone who pays their early employees in options should be ashamed of themselves.
Obviously, a startup simply can't compete with a big company on salary or stability, but being honest about the reality of the situation and offering real equity can help.