[HN Gopher] How to communicate why your startup is worth joining
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How to communicate why your startup is worth joining
Author : flreln
Score : 115 points
Date : 2022-08-23 15:15 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (wasp-lang.dev)
(TXT) w3m dump (wasp-lang.dev)
| f311a wrote:
| A very well written article. I liked the writing style.
| indymike wrote:
| We've had really good luck just telling the truth. I'm 2 for 2 on
| targeted hires (where we found them and landed them) this year.
| Being radically honest really pays off when it comes to talent.
|
| (you do have to have a good story and good place to work)
| henning wrote:
| At some point, it became acceptable to post hand-drawn diagrams
| with illegible handwriting. If you don't care about presenting
| information clearly, I don't care about what you have to say.
| bombcar wrote:
| It, like everything else outlined in that blog, is designed to
| make you look fun and quirky.
| lkrubner wrote:
| I notice that, nowadays, startups are emphasizing "work/life
| balance" much more than they used to. I'm sure part of that is
| because of the pandemic, which created strange new realities,
| where companies that had previously been workaholic and office-
| centric were forced to change by the historic events of the last
| 2 years.
|
| But also, I think the trend had started before the pandemic. They
| heyday of valorizing a workaholic, 24/7 lifestyle was awhile ago,
| in the years after the 2008 crisis, when young people were trying
| to start their careers in very difficult economic conditions.
|
| As one data point, which I think suggests the change, I've
| noticed how the comments have been changing, in regards to my
| book "How To Destroy A Tech Startup In Three Easy Steps" which
| describes events that happened in 2015. When the book first came
| out, some people said "Lawrence should not have stayed so long at
| such a dysfunctional startup" but everyone who read the book seem
| to know about such workaholic startups. But lately the comments
| have been more doubtful. A recent comment on Amazon:
|
| "Working regularly till 2-3AM? I've never seen that even among
| startups in co-working spaces. The boss screaming at employees at
| video calls, yet everyone just takes it and nobody immediately
| quits?"
|
| I don't know who wrote that, but if they've truly never seen such
| things, that suggests to me that they've been working at places
| that have a healthy work/life balance, and I think such places
| (in the startup world) are more common now than 7 years ago.
|
| I created the first rough draft of the book simply by copying-
| and-pasting text from Slack messages and email. Even after
| editing, 80% of the final copy was based on text written at the
| time of the incidents. There are no exaggerations in the book.
| And yet I think the culture I describe is fading away (which is
| probably a good thing).
|
| The last few startups I've consulted with have all emphasized
| work/life balance, and I'd like to think that startups in general
| are moving towards supporting a more sustainable lifestyle for
| their employees.
|
| Having said that, I recognize, the world will always have
| ambitious people who work 100 hours a week because they are
| trying to get ahead. The question, always, is whether such people
| have a right to ask others to also work 100 hours a week.
| neilv wrote:
| > _"If I haven't responded to something that you've sent me,
| that's probably because I've read it and don't feel particularly
| strongly - so just make a call on what to do if you don't hear
| back in a reasonable time frame."_
|
| Surely there's a more effective protocol that works for an exec?
|
| Even make a macro button for the exec that responds "dfps", so
| that:
|
| 1. sender is immediately unblocked and empowered when they get
| the "dfps", and
|
| 2. avoid accidents in which the exec would need to say something
| but didn't get the message, but sender assumed an "implicit
| dfps".
| scrumbledober wrote:
| yeah this sounds horrible. The primary role of a manager in the
| manager/managee relationship should be unblocking the managee.
| hammock wrote:
| dfps?
| __derek__ wrote:
| I assume "don't feel particularly strongly" based on the
| blurb, but new abbreviations really should be defined.
| [deleted]
| __derek__ wrote:
| From what I hear, this is common behavior for partners at law
| firms (i.e. the folks that own the client relationship, much
| like the CEO owns the decisions made), and it's absolutely
| bizarre.
| alex_zhezherov wrote:
| reminds me of what Thiel in 0->1 was referring to when talking
| about company culture / mission.
| wnolens wrote:
| Doing a job hunt right now and im trying to assess "what's my day
| to day like" and it comes down to two factors: what are the
| people like, and what is the actual work.
|
| I want to really like the people, as I've discovered my life is
| way more boring otherwise. I spend 8-10h/day working, I need to
| be able to laugh and make other people laugh and have interesting
| conversations. I'd love to make friends out of it. People often
| tell me don't rely on work for that, but the time investment is
| too steep not to use it as a social outlet.
|
| I also want to know the actual work. Not the buzzwords, or the
| product name, or fast paced industry, but the actual initiatives
| for the next year. Crank out new features for mobile app? Not my
| skill set. Typical oncall rotation? Nah.
|
| I'm shocked how many companies are willing to start the interview
| process immediately. I decline until I have at least an hour
| convo with who would be my manager.
|
| As per the article, yes more blogging helps but how do I know
| it's genuine and not marketing bs? I don't.
| nicoburns wrote:
| > I decline until I have at least an hour convo with who would
| be my manager.
|
| Is that not part of the interview process? For some jobs I've
| worked, that's been the entirety of the interview process!
| khuey wrote:
| It's usually towards the end of the interview process, not at
| the beginning.
| q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote:
| I feel like this archetype (wanting to have fun, make friends,
| etc) is actually very common, at least around SF/SV. I bet
| you'll find it soon enough.
|
| If I can be candid (and hopefully still amicable) behind my
| random-string username, I do have to say: I don't _get_ the
| approach, though.
|
| Can you help me understand? Why does it really _matter_ if you
| can share dank memes with your coworkers or have fun little in-
| jokes?
|
| Isn't it far, _far_ more important to find out things like: How
| do people communicate? How do people disagree with each other?
| Are people able to separate emotions and ego from the team 's
| work output and outcomes? What values does each person _want_
| to embody in the work that they produce? Are people willing to
| sacrifice momentary comfort for genuine personal growth?
|
| Maybe I'm a grumpy old man. Maybe I've just been burned too
| many times by companies promising a "fun" work environment
| where "everyone is friends" -- only to discover what they
| actually mean is an environment where harmony and comfort are
| valued above all else. The net result (in my anecdotal
| experience) is an atmosphere of passive-aggressive
| collaboration and mediocre work, because even the slightest
| hint of disagreement is shut down brutally instead of being
| talked through and genuinely resolved.
|
| I'm not really disagreeing with you, because, like I said, I've
| seen so many people who want what you describe. I only wonder:
| How does it _work_? What happens when a colleague treats you
| unprofessionally? What happens when one person is dragging down
| the team?
|
| In your live/love/laugh philosophy, how do you have meaningful,
| uncomfortable, _worthwhile_ conversations that result in a
| genuine, deep relationship forged through facing hard truths
| together?
| qazxcvbnmlp wrote:
| To answer your question 'how do we separate ego and emotions
| from our work outcome'.
|
| Rarely are there people that are completely emotionless.
| Often when people say they are rational, it means they don't
| have a good cognitive understanding of their emotions.
|
| So, in the context of a work environment, I've found it's
| very helpful to take in account peoples emotions when getting
| tasks accomplished. And like, there's countless studies
| signifying the importance of emotional intelligence in the
| workplace.
|
| Fun in-jokes are a way of getting to know a person in a
| casual way. This is really important, because knowing someone
| allows you to know their motives, what's important, potential
| hurt points, etc.
|
| This all becomes very relevant when there is an important
| issues to be addressed. I can adjust timing, who hears the
| message, context of the message, etc based on what I know
| about the person.
|
| Eg, if during small talk, I find out someone has been up all
| night because their kid is sick. Sure, that kid is not my
| problem, but if I wait till they are more rested to tell them
| about an issue in their design it will be more likely to be
| resolved in a productive manner.
| jrumbut wrote:
| > In your live/love/laugh philosophy, how do you have
| meaningful, uncomfortable, worthwhile conversations that
| result in a genuine, deep relationship forged through facing
| hard truths together?
|
| That sounds like the kind of relationship I'd have with my
| spouse, sibling, or very old friend.
|
| In those relationships, you can't avoid it. At work, I try to
| be mindful that ultimately everyone is there so they can feed
| their family and not get cold in the winter time. That's an
| uncomfortable truth, and everyone has to face it, so it's
| good to stay light and breezy when possible.
|
| Enforced fun is its own kind of hell, I try to share only the
| most anodyne memes at work, and I have seen harmony
| overvalued, but harmony and comfort do have value. If I see a
| team where every decision provokes a lengthy and probing
| inquiry into values, and they weren't building a warp drive
| or cancer cure, I might be a bit put off. Is camel case vs
| snake case really so important? Disagreeing productively is
| an important skill, but so is picking your battles.
| Terretta wrote:
| We see what you did there.
| stevebmark wrote:
| It's weird, this is an advertisement for these companies, but I
| would only mainly care about point 4 ("the business"), and
| company values. The rest seem immature, like from the perspective
| of someone just leaving college looking for a job that really
| "vibes" with them, but don't know how to evaluate companies for
| real substance.
|
| How "fun" / "x" a founder is likely won't correlate with the
| success of the business, in fact could be a negative. Teams
| change frequently from turnover especially in the bay area and
| especially in startups, so "the team" and these detailed team
| bios will quickly become stale. Same for the "culture" built on
| that team.
| kradeelav wrote:
| A bit amusing to see the article and think "they really could
| have summed it up as "show, don't tell", aka the old sage
| writer's advice. :)
|
| Some very good points made in the article, glad I read. I admit
| the personal instagram would be a huge turnoff for me since it
| shows ("shows") that there's not an expectation for work sphere
| and personal life sphere to be airgapped. Then again maybe that's
| the kind of person they're trying to filter out.
| solarmist wrote:
| Sure, but it's embracing that by showing and not telling, then
| giving tips and examples of how to do it effectively.
| twalla wrote:
| I'd be curious to see the results of A/B'ing doing all the stuff
| in this article vs just advertising (competitive) pay upfront.
| flreln wrote:
| A YC founder I'm in the same WhatsApp group with said "I've
| seen roughly 10x the volume of high quality senior+
| applications after doing this a few times now"
| twalla wrote:
| Advertising pay up front or doing candidate outreach as
| outlined in this blog post?
| flreln wrote:
| Doing candidate outreach as outlined in the post vs
| traditional recruiting methods
| indymike wrote:
| HR Tech company founder here. When you advertise a competitive
| salary in your job, you can expet 18% more people to apply for
| that job. This is across all job boards we've tried. Research
| is across 450,000 job applicants for 13,200 jobs:
|
| Top 3 things you can do to get more/better candidates:
|
| 1. Include salary in job ads (and make sure it's competitive)
| 18% more applies.
|
| 2. Talk to every applicant as quickly as you can and certainly
| before resume screening 14.4% of resumes we checked had an
| inaccuracy that would have resulted in a screenout. By talking
| first, you can find and fix these problems and keep some very
| good talent in the pipe.
|
| 3. Remove unnecessary qualifications and preferences. Removing
| "degree perferred" where it doesn't matter can get 8% more
| applies. Removing bad technical requirements can make a huge
| difference, too. No one has 20 years of Docker expeirence.
| matijash wrote:
| awesome insights, thank you!
| thrwyoilarticle wrote:
| >3. Remove unnecessary qualifications and preferences.
| Removing "degree perferred" where it doesn't matter can get
| 8% more applies. Removing bad technical requirements can make
| a huge difference, too. No one has 20 years of Docker
| expeirence.
|
| Does this have a disproportionate effect along gender lines?
| echelon wrote:
| Speaking personally - if you have a fun product and a Discord,
| hiring is a breeze. Talent finds you.
| ednevsky wrote:
| Wish more startups would do this.
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