Why people that suck don’t do startups

Posted on June 23, 2010 by lukas

I’ve had experience with several startups (and corporations called hospitals) and one thing I’ve noticed is, that founders or early employees are rarely dumbasses. This is different in corporations.

small vs. large

Working or being in a larger collective of people (in this case co-workers) often entails working in groups, hiding behind collegues or simply checking facebook more often than Outlook. Primarly this is due to the fact (a genuinely good one) that workload is being decentralized, organized and distributed among individuals that are trained for specific tasks. Being really good at a particular thing allows one to stay away from tasks where one is not that well educated. Education and training for this task is an excuse for not having to do other shit at the cubicle around the corner.

At startups there are no cubicles. There are screens that are visible to all of your collegues, the length of a lunch break is no more secret and updating your facebook status might be even part of your job.

working vs. doing

This stark contrast and a startup’s work transparency are a fundamental argument of why startups usually have great people – at least in its early days. There is simply no possibility to hide behind collegues or stick to your thing. One has to engage with others, discuss, argue and bring in valuable input. The term “working” might even be totally misleading here – it’s rather some sort of doing.

The process of which people are attracted to startups ought to be authentic. Looking for co-founders or your first 2-3 employees via job boards et al. is an affront to startup culture. This process has to evolve from ideas, to invidivuals, to teams and eventually to great products with people on it, not working, but doing.

What about the rest?

There's a shit load of big companies out there
that are hiring like crazy.

About lukas

MD with entrepreneurial efforts
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  • http://twitter.com/almarrone Alex

    In startups people are also driven by their OWN ideas, instead of being driven to do stuff decided upon by someone else, most of the time not even involving them in the decision process (top down by rank, not by know-how) -> this results in a vast difference in enthusiasm.nnPlus startups involve a big degree of uncertainty and lack of security which only caters to risk-taker personalities and makes everybody question if what they are doing makes sense, day in and day out; in big corporates you are relatively safe and can pass the days even without buying into what the company is doing just for the paycheck at the end of the month.nnBig name corporates also provide identity: big name, so many people working there, the regular way of doing things (third-party acknowledgement, 9-5, vacations, meetings, etc.) whereas in startups you are out of the ordinary and have to constantly justify your ideas to the majority which is a struggle not everyone can take.

  • http://twitter.com/almarrone Alex

    In startups people are also driven by their OWN ideas, instead of being driven to do stuff decided upon by someone else, most of the time not even involving them in the decision process (top down by rank, not by know-how) -> this results in a vast difference in enthusiasm.nnPlus startups involve a big degree of uncertainty and lack of security which only caters to risk-taker personalities and makes everybody question if what they are doing makes sense, day in and day out; in big corporates you are relatively safe and can pass the days even without buying into what the company is doing just for the paycheck at the end of the month.nnBig name corporates also provide identity: big name, so many people working there, the regular way of doing things (third-party acknowledgement, 9-5, vacations, meetings, etc.) whereas in startups you are out of the ordinary and have to constantly justify your ideas to the majority which is a struggle not everyone can take.

  • http://twitter.com/almarrone Alex

    In startups people are also driven by their OWN ideas, instead of being driven to do stuff decided upon by someone else, most of the time not even involving them in the decision process (top down by rank, not by know-how) -> this results in a vast difference in enthusiasm.nnPlus startups involve a big degree of uncertainty and lack of security which only caters to risk-taker personalities and makes everybody question if what they are doing makes sense, day in and day out; in big corporates you are relatively safe and can pass the days even without buying into what the company is doing just for the paycheck at the end of the month.nnBig name corporates also provide identity: big name, so many people working there, the regular way of doing things (third-party acknowledgement, 9-5, vacations, meetings, etc.) whereas in startups you are out of the ordinary and have to constantly justify your ideas to the majority which is a struggle not everyone can take.

  • http://twitter.com/almarrone Alex

    In startups people are also driven by their OWN ideas, instead of being driven to do stuff decided upon by someone else, most of the time not even involving them in the decision process (top down by rank, not by know-how) -> this results in a vast difference in enthusiasm.nnPlus startups involve a big degree of uncertainty and lack of security which only caters to risk-taker personalities and makes everybody question if what they are doing makes sense, day in and day out; in big corporates you are relatively safe and can pass the days even without buying into what the company is doing just for the paycheck at the end of the month.nnBig name corporates also provide identity: big name, so many people working there, the regular way of doing things (third-party acknowledgement, 9-5, vacations, meetings, etc.) whereas in startups you are out of the ordinary and have to constantly justify your ideas to the majority which is a struggle not everyone can take.

  • http://twitter.com/almarrone Alex

    In startups people are also driven by their OWN ideas, instead of being driven to do stuff decided upon by someone else, most of the time not even involving them in the decision process (top down by rank, not by know-how) -> this results in a vast difference in enthusiasm.nnPlus startups involve a big degree of uncertainty and lack of security which only caters to risk-taker personalities and makes everybody question if what they are doing makes sense, day in and day out; in big corporates you are relatively safe and can pass the days even without buying into what the company is doing just for the paycheck at the end of the month.nnBig name corporates also provide identity: big name, so many people working there, the regular way of doing things (third-party acknowledgement, 9-5, vacations, meetings, etc.) whereas in startups you are out of the ordinary and have to constantly justify your ideas to the majority which is a struggle not everyone can take.

  • http://twitter.com/almarrone Alex

    In startups people are also driven by their OWN ideas, instead of being driven to do stuff decided upon by someone else, most of the time not even involving them in the decision process (top down by rank, not by know-how) -> this results in a vast difference in enthusiasm.

    Plus startups involve a big degree of uncertainty and lack of security which only caters to risk-taker personalities and makes everybody question if what they are doing makes sense, day in and day out; in big corporates you are relatively safe and can pass the days even without buying into what the company is doing just for the paycheck at the end of the month.

    Big name corporates also provide identity: big name, so many people working there, the regular way of doing things (third-party acknowledgement, 9-5, vacations, meetings, etc.) whereas in startups you are out of the ordinary and have to constantly justify your ideas to the majority which is a struggle not everyone can take.