L
Learn to Duck
learntoduck.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2007
Startup advice blog by Micah, covering founders, sales, funding and the split between hackers and hustlers.
What HN saysHN commenters link its "Hackers and Hustlers" post to explain the term and cite its views on founder pay and startup teams.
47HN people shared it
6linked it in comments
65stories submitted
891story points
4 years agolast shared
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What HN people wrote when they linked it
itsprofitbaron · 2012-03-28
Personally, I wouldn't but yes it is possible as you said - Steve Jobs did it and Jack Dorsey does it.
However, this doesn't mean that you are Steve Jobs/Jack Dorsey and running two startups at once is hard work. Especially when, most people can't even run one!
There are tons of people's opinions regarding this for instance:
http://tech.li/2012/02/ceo-sundays-running-two-startups-is-more-than-a… - Argues its possible
http://learntoduck.com/startups/two-startups/ - Argues its not
FWIW: I'm not putting Steve Jobs or Jack Dorsey in the same boat, I'm just highlighting someone else who currently does it. (Nor am I discreditting Jack Dorsey by saying this - Square and Twitter are both great startups)
kanamekun · 2011-06-03
There is nothing wrong with taking money off of the table. In fact, if you want to strike it big... it's important to make sure that your management team is financially secure:
http://learntoduck.com/startups/it-all-changes-when-the-founder-drives…
Andrew Mason was fairly explicit that taking a recent huge round was designed to "permanently solve the money problem":
(from the article linked below)
“For me, the reason to do this was to solve a binary life problem,” he explained.
In life, Andrew says, “You either have enough [money] or you don’t.”
“When people came with a lot of money to buy a very small percentage of Groupon and it was enough to permanently solve the money problem, why would I not want to do that?
“Now I can focus on making Groupon great.”
http://blogs.forbes.com/velocity/2010/04/19/groupon-ceo-andrew-mason-s…
rmason · 2011-11-04
I think it's short hand for this blog post which popularized the term.
http://learntoduck.com/micah/hackers-hustlers
A startup can consist of two hackers - but one has to function at least part time as a hustler.
FYI locally at Michigan State the student entrepreneurs group is called hackers and hustlers and it was named after that very post.
tgriesser · 2011-03-22
I am only going off the definition which this article is referencing.
http://learntoduck.com/micah/hackers-hustlers
rahulchaudhary · 2010-10-01
There is a good post Hackers and Hustlers that you should read
http://learntoduck.com/micah/hackers-hustlers
virtualritz · 2010-09-08
Yes, for going to market you will always need a business person too (the hustler, see http://learntoduck.com/micah/hackers-hustlers).
I guess the post was more about the problem solving power such teams have vs combinations of people that are more homogeneous in disciplines. It ignores the economic aspect of what comes after 'inventing'. ;)
I could have mentioned pair programming which imho benefits hugely (though not always) from the 2nd person (the passive one) coming from a loosely related or even unrelated field.
I.e. a high level 3d graphics hacker with a low lever system programmer looking over their shoulder.