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Excessive Development Startup, 0 Workers - David Cummings On Startups
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An area I’m especially fascinated with is the long run of labor. Of course, the pandemic significantly broadened that interest by means of pressured distant/digital work and many discussions of how the workplace will change going forward. Final week I read one of the incredible examples of a high progress startup scaling successfully with zero employees. Yes, no workers, eight figures of revenue, and almost a triple digit development price. So, how does it work? Let’s dive in.
No Conferences, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Workers by Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gum Street, is fascinating. A number of of the highlights:
- Overarching private objective for the founder is “freedom at all costs”, meaning he runs the business, the enterprise doesn’t run him
- No conferences - all the pieces is completed via intensive writing in instruments like GitHub and Notion
- All the pieces is managed as Duties in Notion
- No targets or OKRS, only a single North Star: maximizing how much creators earn (Gumroad is a platform for creators to get paid)
- Product roadmap is public
- Minimal viable culture with no “forced” socializing
- Everyone is a contractor paid highly aggressive hourly charges ($50/hr - $250/hr)
- Hiring is done via a kind, multi-hour unpaid assessment doing a hypothetical mission, then a paid few-week trial
- Inside document for all staff that reveals hourly pay and hours worked
- No perks - just cash and adaptability (no healthcare, no technology stipend, etc.)
- Most of the contractors have been found as they have been already Gumroad customers and a part of the creator economic system
- “Anti-overtime” charge of 50% of the hourly charge if a person works over 20 hours in per week (objective is for everyone to work 20 hours every week or less)
Studying the publish, a number of questions come to mind:
- How doable is this without the wonderful pipeline of potential contractors which can be already locally of consumers?
- What kind of particular person values flexibility above all else? What approximate percentage of the population?
- Does a digital, asynchronous-only culture matter over the long haul for continued success?
- What does contractor turnover appear like? How comparable or different is turnover to regular tech startups at an analogous stage?
The “anti-overtime” rate actually gets me considering as it’s a catalytic mechanism to align the internal expectations with the contractor‘s wallet. We’re here to work no more than 20 hours/week. For startup coach who want more time to do no matter, go for it, however it’s at your discretion and at a considerably reduced price.
Serious about contractors working not more than 20 hours week, it likely aligns with how much “real” work will get achieved in a standard forty hour week. Time spent in meetings, going to lunch, socializing at the water cooler (virtual or otherwise), and many others. likely isn’t “creator” time but does have social worth and cultural importance. When it’s stripped away and time is barely spent on the specified output, what modifications?
Total, No Conferences, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Workers is an unimaginable learn that seems like a new sort of business the place the working model fills an unmet want for some (many?) folks. I believe the development of contractors, freelancers, gig staff is just accelerating and an organization like Gumroad is the logical extreme. The big query: when does one thing that appears excessive right this moment turn into commonplace?
No Conferences, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Workers by Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gum Street, is fascinating. A number of of the highlights:
- Overarching private objective for the founder is “freedom at all costs”, meaning he runs the business, the enterprise doesn’t run him
- No conferences - all the pieces is completed via intensive writing in instruments like GitHub and Notion
- All the pieces is managed as Duties in Notion
- No targets or OKRS, only a single North Star: maximizing how much creators earn (Gumroad is a platform for creators to get paid)
- Product roadmap is public
- Minimal viable culture with no “forced” socializing
- Everyone is a contractor paid highly aggressive hourly charges ($50/hr - $250/hr)
- Hiring is done via a kind, multi-hour unpaid assessment doing a hypothetical mission, then a paid few-week trial
- Inside document for all staff that reveals hourly pay and hours worked
- No perks - just cash and adaptability (no healthcare, no technology stipend, etc.)
- Most of the contractors have been found as they have been already Gumroad customers and a part of the creator economic system
- “Anti-overtime” charge of 50% of the hourly charge if a person works over 20 hours in per week (objective is for everyone to work 20 hours every week or less)
Studying the publish, a number of questions come to mind:
- How doable is this without the wonderful pipeline of potential contractors which can be already locally of consumers?
- What kind of particular person values flexibility above all else? What approximate percentage of the population?
- Does a digital, asynchronous-only culture matter over the long haul for continued success?
- What does contractor turnover appear like? How comparable or different is turnover to regular tech startups at an analogous stage?
The “anti-overtime” rate actually gets me considering as it’s a catalytic mechanism to align the internal expectations with the contractor‘s wallet. We’re here to work no more than 20 hours/week. For startup coach who want more time to do no matter, go for it, however it’s at your discretion and at a considerably reduced price.
Serious about contractors working not more than 20 hours week, it likely aligns with how much “real” work will get achieved in a standard forty hour week. Time spent in meetings, going to lunch, socializing at the water cooler (virtual or otherwise), and many others. likely isn’t “creator” time but does have social worth and cultural importance. When it’s stripped away and time is barely spent on the specified output, what modifications?
Total, No Conferences, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Workers is an unimaginable learn that seems like a new sort of business the place the working model fills an unmet want for some (many?) folks. I believe the development of contractors, freelancers, gig staff is just accelerating and an organization like Gumroad is the logical extreme. The big query: when does one thing that appears excessive right this moment turn into commonplace?
