Sahil Lavingia is building a startup on his own terms.
Interesting read, some takeaways stolen from a co-worker:
- *Flexible work* is more important than remote work, Profit sharing is better than equity
- He tries to *hire engineers on a part time basis* so they can have a life outside of the company "I’m trying to make an explicit case to amazing engineers: You can work for Gumroad for 20 hours a week and make $100k a year. Or you can work at Facebook for 60 hours a week and make $250k a year. Would you rather make $100k less a year but get 40 extra hours per week?"
- the VC road is toxic because it *creates an artificial time based thinking* ("by X date next year I need to be at X point")
- being psycho about goals is just as bad as not having goals at all. They should serve as motivation, but not dictate your life. You should think a few steps ahead, but at the end of the day, *no plan survives contact with the enemy*.
- With OKRs, at the start *you want structure because you don’t know what you’re doing*. When you start figuring stuff you, you realize you don’t need a lot of extra stuff. It can be loosely defined.
And:
- Profit sharing with contractors?
- Systems, not goals (Again)
- The value of Twitter