GrayProctor

A rant on startups

The current startup tech employees and founders are filled with so much junkies who do not care about the product at all.

The culture is set when the startup is founded,when the first set of employees arrive. These folks are some of the most driven and talented and that's fine, it's how it should be.

But the problem begins when these folks do not find their own hiring strategy and copy the hiring strategy of other companies.

Instead of analysing what works best for them they justify their hiring means by saying this is what other have done.

The result is you get a bunch of leetcode warriors who are always wanting to jump ships when given opportunity, never forming deep knowledge about their industry and their product.

I work in one of the legacy tech companies, sure we do not hire the best people but we nurture them and that earns loyalty and long careers in our company.

Even the employees have a very 360 degree view wrt product. We always deeply care about our product.

Tbh I love seeing the stupidity of the market and it makes me happy that more confident that these people are wrong and always will be.

Even the Indian startups are unoriginal and copied from the west then how do you expect the hiring to be unique. We are all living in the circus where jokers are supporting each other in making the circus bigger.

7mo ago

AlphaGrindset

Series A Startup7mo

Agree on the hiring part. As your team grows, it becomes incrementally tough to find people who are excited about the vision itself, and you attract people who are just out there to switch.

I think it's a discovery problem - startups are eager to grow quickly, and it's tough to wait for the right person to come around.

GrayProctor

Stealth7mo

It's not about hiring the right person, the right person never exists but more about not hiring the best talent because the best talent wont stick around.

I know it sounds ridiculous to not hire the best but it works look at Zoho.

jake_peralta_B99

Freelancer7mo

I disagree. One should always strive to work with best minds. Only thing is have another Guage to figure out if the person is in it for the money or in it for the long run and to build something meaningful. I understand it's a rarity and you don't get both in an employee. But I am sure you certainly wouldn't get it if you have a below market comp. That's the reason most places cannot find great talent because they are not ready to pay at par to get better candidates

baffledwaffle

Stealth7mo

Last part is so true, most of the startups here are just cheaper versions of US startups with different ui/ux.

These startups are being built with the intention of selling the company at a later stage and not scaling.

Now this may have butterfly effects and moreover a lot of people will make money.

But I don’t expect the staying at a place and being nurtured part, since most people don’t know what they’re doing.

I have 2.5 YOE and I just left my 4th company a few months ago.

I still can’t believe that I fell for the hype around a particular role I was doing.

Encarta

TCS7mo

Which role are you talking about?

baffledwaffle

Stealth7mo

It’s a sales role, Sales Development Representative (SDR), wherein you book meetings for the Account Executives, who in-turn takes the demo and closes the deal.

Back in the day everything used to end-to-end sales, now it’s mostly split into SDR + AE + CSM, larger organisations would have Sales Enablement and Revops.

This model works only for a few companies but everyone is blindly following this and why large saas companies like zoho/freshworks do this despite not being as huge as Salesforce is cause the cost of hiring sales folks in India is comparatively lower than the US.

Now people give fancy explanations like ‘building pipeline’, most of them are selling courses, the real sales is done by AE and CSM.

Most people jump every 1-2 yrs but most are quick to criticise when you have hops on your resume,
What I feel is that, what’s happening is just logo hunting, get max number of brag worthy clients and then jack up the valuation.

FewRemains0

InMobi7mo

Sour grape 🍇

jake_peralta_B99

Freelancer7mo

This needed to be said. 100% aligned and loved that your org cares about grooming employees. It's rare in startups and I am truly happy that you got to be part of such a thing