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The article is not talking about "bugs that can wait til Monday" or all night coding sessions. It's talking about emergencies that affect your customers that mu

by schammy 16y ago

The article is not talking about "bugs that can wait til Monday" or all night coding sessions. It's talking about emergencies that affect your customers that must be dealt with immediately. You've been with at least 5 startups in 9 years. That suggests to me that none of them were terribly successful, in which case I suppose just about any problem could wait til Monday. My startup has almost 20,000 paying customers and if something goes wrong, you bet your ass I'm on it immediately, whether it's 3am and I had more than few drinks earlier that evening, or I'm in Hawaii on my birthday and 7 servers lose power and I have to spend the next 5 hours dealing with that mess. Did I mention it was my birthday and I was in Hawaii? These scenarios are rare, but they do happen. I would never actually take my laptop to a restaurant, but if something bad happens it needs to be dealt with pronto. In the example from the story, I would have either delayed going out, or if it happened when I was already out, then I would leave as soon as possible. In general I don't put work before family or fun but every once in a while you have to if you want to run a successful business.

enjo 16y ago
I'm not sure were you got that. I've been with 3 startups in 9 years. One of them continues to this day (and has been quite successful), one flamed out (1 year), and the current one (3.5 years old) is doing tremendously well (well into 7 figures yearly revenue). I can't help but feel like you didn't really read my comment. It's a matter of triage. It's knowing the difference between a true emergency (the site is down and we're spending money to drive traffic) vs something that can wait (feature X has stopped working). Far too often the workaholics in the startup world are panicking to fix issues that can truly wait. It may be ugly and it may slightly torque off your customers, but it's not the type of issue that needs my immediate attention. In those cases (which are far and away the majority cases) I'm not going to stop my life down to fix those.
- LiveTheDream 16y ago
  From original comment: "I've been involved in startups for the last 9 years (the last 4 as a technical founder)." He read the last part as the last 4 companies instead of years. FWIW that's also how I originally read it.
- schammy 16y ago
  Sorry, when you said "I've been involved in startups for the last 9 years (the last 4 as a technical founder)", I took "the last 4" to mean the last 4 startups, not years - from which I gathered there had to be at least 1 more, hence 5 startups. Ok, 3 in 9 years, that's a different story. Sorry, I was kind of grouchy when I wrote my comment... it just seemed like you were playing off any and all problems though as "eh.. it's the weekend".

by schammy 16y ago

enjo 16y ago

I'm not sure were you got that. I've been with 3 startups in 9 years. One of them continues to this day (and has been quite successful), one flamed out (1 year), and the current one (3.5 years old) is doing tremendously well (well into 7 figures yearly revenue). I can't help but feel like you didn't really read my comment. It's a matter of triage. It's knowing the difference between a true emergency (the site is down and we're spending money to drive traffic) vs something that can wait (feature X has stopped working). Far too often the workaholics in the startup world are panicking to fix issues that can truly wait. It may be ugly and it may slightly torque off your customers, but it's not the type of issue that needs my immediate attention. In those cases (which are far and away the majority cases) I'm not going to stop my life down to fix those.

LiveTheDream 16y ago
From original comment: "I've been involved in startups for the last 9 years (the last 4 as a technical founder)." He read the last part as the last 4 companies instead of years. FWIW that's also how I originally read it.
schammy 16y ago
Sorry, when you said "I've been involved in startups for the last 9 years (the last 4 as a technical founder)", I took "the last 4" to mean the last 4 startups, not years - from which I gathered there had to be at least 1 more, hence 5 startups. Ok, 3 in 9 years, that's a different story. Sorry, I was kind of grouchy when I wrote my comment... it just seemed like you were playing off any and all problems though as "eh.. it's the weekend".