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Ask HN: is it better to have work experience before starting a startup?

by al_ on 7/25/10, 6:48 PM with 16 comments

• by LeBlanc on 7/25/10, 9:05 PM

  I was in the same situation as you about 2 months ago and I decided to take the plunge and work on my own start-up.

  While I know that work experience and the network from working someplace awesome would help me, I had the idea, the passion, and a basic prototype so I decided to just do it. I could always go join a start-up later, and I don't have any debt or obligations so I can live super-cheap. Even if I fail I will have a cool piece of software to show for it that I can use to help me get a job later.

  Good luck with whatever you decide! Shoot me an email if you want to talk.

• by staunch on 7/25/10, 9:25 PM

  No. Yes you will learn a lot. Some truly helpful things, but 90% will be about how to thrive inside a company as an employee. If you want to be a founder the only real experience is to be one.

  Your job as founder of a tiny startup puts you on the correct trajectory.

• by spooneybarger on 7/25/10, 6:57 PM

  If you want to start a company, it is good work in a company environment where you can see what you think works and doesn't work first hand. Practical experience vs theoretical will help you make fewer mistakes no matter what craft you practice be it, running a business, programming, carpentry or anything else.

• by z2amiller on 7/26/10, 1:08 AM

  Working at a "real" company will give you some insight about "how the sausage is made", both from the business side as well as the software development side. You can gain a lot of information about what does and does not work by observing and participating in the process for a while. Stay at home or live cheap and put some of that decent salary into savings for if/when you commit to your own project full time.

  Nothing wrong with developing your own product on the side or "after hours", although be aware that at many startups most positions have some kind of operational component and/or tight deadlines, which might interfere with after hours projects. (Not all startups/small companies are like this of course).

  Make sure that if you are developing something on your own time that it does not compete with the company's product line, you will often have to sign a contract to that effect. Along the same lines, be sure to have a clear line between things you develop for the company and things you develop for yourself - keep a separate machine for your own code, don't use your employer's equipment or even a personal machine with your employer's code checked out on it. The same advice goes for freelance projects.

• by all on 7/26/10, 10:40 AM

  I have worked at various levels of several different kinds of companies - everything from epoxies to hospices to ship management to pure software houses to educational institutions. I never learned so much about running a company as I did after reading Gerber's "E-Myth Revisited" and then starting out on my own company. Rather than go corporate, I recommend poring over the org charts and business models of several different kinds of businesses and follow the money. Figure out why they have hired the people they do and what function they serve in the nitty-gritty to serve the overall vision of the company. How do they make a customer? How do they deliver? When you can map each of these out on paper in the nitty-gritty, then you are ready to think about your own company, I say. But working in the corporate world will not necessarily help you with that. It will, however, give you contacts and a network that you can leverage. In addition to Gerber's book, I encourage you to take to heart Felix Dennis' "How to Get Rich", wherein he takes up the matter of working for someone else only enough to learn the business inside out so you can compete with them.

• by ashitvora on 7/25/10, 7:19 PM

  Well, it depends on your needs, situation.

  If you are not running after money but want to work for yourself (passion for being an entrepreneur), I would suggest you to take risk and start your own company. Try it for a year. I possible also have a co founder who's frequency matches with you but skill sets are complementary with yours.

  If you need more money. Forget about starting a company now. Get few years of experience (4-5 yrs). And than start.

• by starkfist on 7/30/10, 2:06 AM

  I'm late to this. But in my experience you should start up your company while you can live with your parents. Don't bother with working for someone else's startup. Also, the 120-150 person mark is a really bad time. You have all the chaos and long hours of a startup, but all the weird political lameness of a big company at the same time.

• by barrydahlberg on 7/26/10, 1:55 AM

  Go do the company. The older you get and the more assets and commitments you have the harder it is to take a big risk.