This is much earlier than a normal employee. I'd say this is about right, although you should be considered a founding team member and not an employee.
Thanks so much! So apart from the issue of founder v. employee, you think this is a reasonable situation? I think the founders are happy to bring me in because I'm generally competent/capable (and we've been friends for 10-15 years, they know I'm reliable), but again, they are the ones with all the industry knowledge.
I've had some people pressing me to push for founder status, but I think that's a bit much.
The offer is clearly more like a founder in that you are agreeing to a significantly below market salary in exchange for a pretty sizable chunk of equity. So whether the "title" of co-founder is given or not, they are treating it more like a minor partner/founder.
Given that this offer is equity heavy - you should understand things like vesting schedule, and dilution when additional investment comes in.
I'm sure that's part of it, but I've had great success with no-carb diets (ketogenic) and I guarantee I eat more calories than most people do, even with snacks.
When you take the carbs out, your body starts using body fat for energy. It's great, really.
Hardest part for me is falling asleep in such a short period of time, especially during the day. When I have succeeded with these naps, it's been amazing.
Has anybody ever had a good experience with Thumbtack (or Homeadvisor)? Every time I've tried it, I've only gotten vague bids (since they can't see my house until I connect through the platform), and it seems all of their contractors are desperate for work. They seem to be the types of handymen that are doing this as a side gig.
>Lesson learned: Newsletter- or Beta-signups from your landing page is NOT the same as validation for you idea.
Sure, Beta and Newsletter signups are not full validation for your ideas. But the reality is that you'll never get full validation.
For those who are looking to take the plunge and quit their job, or are deciding which project to work on, a simple test like this can be used as a proxy for demand.
Just because people click sign up on your landing page doesn't mean your product will succeed. But it is infinitely more indicative than just guessing.
If you're going to do a startup, you're going to shoot and miss several times before you succeed. I've been there before. But having Beta signups at least shows you're aiming in the right direction.
I have to respectfully disagree with some of this article, based on my experience with an accelerator. The point isn't necesarily to raise money. For us, we met lifelong connections and mentors who taught us stuff we knew nothing about. For example, in a week we learned how to do inside sales effectively, which would have otherwise taken us months.
And yes, it is easier to raise funds this way. But you don't have to raise funds at the end. Most accelerators give you barely enough to live off of. If you go through a prestigious accelerator, you will have a lot easier time raising funds in the future from the connections you make.
Finally, interviewing customers works great for some. It works terribly for others, since it can be misleading. If you're in a good accelerator, the mentors will help guide you on delegation of time spent coding vs bus dev vs talking to customers.
The mentors I've found valuable aren't VCs, so I can't speak to that.
And the thing I've come to realize, is that most advice is bad, so you have to sort through 100 potential mentors to get 2-3 that actually add value. The type of value that you look back and think that was life changing.
Also, I've found that accelerator mentors are much more emotionally invested in being helpful for the long term.
I really do feel for businesses negatively affected by Yelp. Yelp is far from perfect, and I know plenty of small business owners who got a couple bad reviews when they were first figuring things out, and weren't ever able to recover from it.
But, I'm not sure if this is even legal. As imperfect as Yelp is, at least it's democratic. Fining somebody for their guests' opinion of their place is not okay.
Funny how often conventional wisdom is wrong, and "not being nice" is no different. When you look at the great companies, they were always focused on relationships and generally doing the right thing. Being nice is good not only from a business standpoint, but a personal standpoint as well.
Lots of companies are different. There are some that are more like sports teams, and some that are like families, and heck, some actually are families.
This article does nothing but debate semantics. Every metaphor breaks down at some point, so I don't see the need to debate which works the best.
