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Comment by simonebrunozzi | Hacker News Reader

Ex-Amazon (and ex-Vmware) here.

Worked at AWS from 2008 to 2014 (Europe, then Asia, then USA), then Vmware (also USA) from 2014 to 2016.

I then spent ~1 year at a startup, as CTO - the experience sucked, and I consider it to simply be a big mistake.

1.5 years ago, I left that job, worked on a new idea, and in August 2017 I founded a startup, Fabrica, with two other friends.

I am still there. No salary. Bootstrapped until March, then raised some angel money. Doing ok.

I will never go back to the corporate world. I'm done with it. I have some money on the side, and I firmly believe that money is to buy things that matter to you. To me, not working at a corporation matters.

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>I firmly believe that money is to buy things that matter to you. To me, not working at a corporation matters.

Damn dude that is a very good way of putting it

Not sure I interpret your comment properly, but did you mean that you particularly liked the sentence? Or was there irony instead?

Yeah I meant that I loved the sentence! I worked in corporate before deciding to go back to Uni and it really resonated with me, even though unfortunately I wasn't able to already buy my own freedom to not be in corporate but need to be supported by family still. Hope I can make it one day :)

Thanks for clarifying!

FWIW I interpreted their comment as unambiguously "liked the sentence".

There's helpful perspective seeing freedom from corporate work as something you're effectively "buying" with less income, rather than avoiding because "it's less enjoyable".

People tend to be quite loss averse, so reframing it as a feature you're buying rather than loss you'll accept can really change how it feels.

> I then spent ~1 year at a startup, as CTO - the experience sucked, and I consider it to simply be a big mistake.

What about the experience sucked? What was the mistake?

It's a long story, and part of it I am not happy to share publicly.

Let's say that there were signals that I should have left earlier, and I didn't listen at first; such as: two co-founders fighting often and disagreeing; not a clear product-market fit, and my product proposals were never taken seriously; lots of arrogance; etc.

> money is to buy things that matter to you.

Yes.

> To me, not working at a corporation matters.

Yes. Don't see myself every going back. And don't have to.

"Money is coined freedom" -- Fyodor Dostoevsky

If your money is not buying you freedom...you're doing it wrong. :-)

dude .. that really gets the point across. I'll remember it.

How is running a startup better than being the CTO of a startup?

Not OP, but there are some common problems, assuming they were a non-founder CTO:

- Instead of leading an eng team, maybe CTO meant "our entire tech team".

- Maybe the founders sucked, or had personal conflicts.

- Maybe the business was broken in ways a technologist can't fix.

- Maybe the business was viable but this individual did not enjoy being a part of it. Could be anything from "there are too many salespeople yelling into phones all around me" to "the technical problems were not the sort I am interested in / good at solving".

Indeed. Also, non-founder CTOs often find themselves in the odd position of being responsible for success and delivery but not being able to influence overall company strategy, particularly in tech-focused companies. It's almost like being a second-class citizen of the leadership team.

Not all companies are like this, but smaller ones that are looking for CTOs (whether due to founder splits or turnover) often are.

The other thing that sometimes happens is when a CTO position is carved out for a company that is doing well but needs "maturity," typically due to missed deadlines/etc. This can be a pretty terrible experience unless this sort of thing floats your boat - a lot of the downsides of working for a large company, but still the risks of working for a small one.

Man, you're good!

The two co-founders had personal conflicts; the business was broken, and never became viable. And a few other things...

Does that mean you would turn down a lucrative acquisition offer from a big corporation?

That seems to be the paradox of founding a startup for the reason you stated.

That's a good point. I am not against being acquired, and I hope I will be a good leader and accept what's best for the company, not just for me.

I guess if the acquisition happens, I can happily accept it as a necessary evil to get more "freedom" in the form of money, and to make my co-founders and workers happy.

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