As it happens, I have worked in a start-up. Several, in fact. As has Duncan Riley, the TechCrunch journalist who was lumped with me on this issue. We agree that to start a successful new business you need to work hard — no-one’s denying that.

What we object to is (1) the false dichotomy which implies there’s only workaholics or slackers, nothing in between, and (2) Jason Calicanis’ tone which implies that staff are expendable worker droids who should be discarded if they don’t over-work to the point of damaging their health.

I’ve also written a follow-up article where I argue that, yes, the Internet start-up culture is a choice — a choice that’s evil, perverted and a danger to human society. I’m sure you’ll hate it.

Don’t you understand that the nature of a startup is that more work is REQUIRED than a ‘regular job’ at a ‘regular company’?

This is because the business model, or the core product audience, or the corporate competencies or services have yet to be established, and thus a lot of work must be done before the startup is “there”.

It’s a gamble. Because the company “wasn’t there before”, one works extremely hard building these missing pieces with the [potential] payoff being equity or just being one of the /early/ employees.

This is not how “regular” companies work.

If you want to have a nice relaxing regular day at work, stop whining about startups and go and work for Morgan Stanley or G.E.

Calacanis and people like him are not trying to run a company like Jack Welch does/did. Maybe Mahalo and/or other ’startups’ may at one time in the future become more like regular corporate entities, but for the duration of the “startup phase” things must be run differently. There will always be plenty of people who will bust their arses in startup mode, but it strikes me that the people who are complaining about Calacanis’ recent comments want to have all the benefits of working at a startup, but without the 12+ hour days.

Yeeaaah, I want to drive a Bugatti Veryon without paying for it too.

Come on now folks. There are all sorts of companies and all sorts of people. Find something that works for you and don’t bitch about something that falls out of your own comfort zone but falls entirely within lots of other peoples.

@Snarky Platypus: As I mentioned on the phone yesterday, I’m glad you mentioned Stockholm Syndrome, because I couldn’t quite work out where it fitted (fat?) into the narrative of my follow-up piece.

@Alex Willemyns: OK, you’re right. “Getting rich” is “worthy” in the sense of being “something of worth”, and the rest of your logic is impeccable too (damn you).

To clarify how that relates to my passion here, I feel that the Calicanis logic is that if we choose “making money” as our goal, then (1) the short-term start-up model is the best and only way to do it, and (2) all other goals must be subverted to this.

I don’t think the 4-day working week is widespread simply because a majority of business managers (at least according to the last Australian survey I saw) still don’t trust their employees to work unless they’re there to watch them work.

The NSW Police do some sort of rotating 12-hour day system, then. a 3-day break, but I couldn’t be bothered looking up the details just now.

“Even quote a dead president in a way which implies that a web start-up is a “worthy cause” — which it isn’t, it’s just about getting rich.”

Making money is no less a worthy cause then anything else — it implies the creation of a good or service that many people want (enough to part with their money.)

Microsoft was a ’start-up’ of sorts, as was Google, Yahoo, heck CollegeHumor. All these companies were driven by the quest for money to give me something decent. Apple, for instance, does nothing more than try to attract my money — but that means innovation from then, and good products for me.

An entrepreneur’s quest to get rich improves everyone else’s livelihoods — he or she cannot get rich unless they have something decent to give to society (i.e something that attracts high demand) .

Making money is the worthiest cause. It shouldn’t be frowned upon as ‘not worthy’ (even if you consider charity a virtue, you can’t give unless you have.)

(To keep on topic: in the position of employer — entrepreneur — I’d be most inclined to employ staff on four day work weeks. After thinking about it, I’m surprised it’s not an already well spread idea.)

Two words:

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

The attempt to “retro-manage” the message is typical.

I would have more respect if he stuck to his truth. And not try and pretend otherwise.

@Jason: Ah, Mr Calacanis, welcome. You must’ve had a busy 24 hours, eh? Pedalling backwards while ducking and weaving is such hard work!

I’m particularly impressed with your work on the 37signals blog where you’ll say one thing, DHH will paraphrase it to counter-argue, and you’ll then respond by saying you actually meant something completely different.

I’ll briefly respond to your comment paragraph by paragraph now, but a more reflective piece will emerge as the day wears on.

1. As I said above, I reckon the words people blurt out are generally closer to their real thoughts, and you did say “fire the people who are not workaholics” and then stress that you weren’t joking. I’m with the Platypus on this one: revisionism.

   “People with kids tend to be the MUCH more efficient with their time,” probably because they have variety in their lives and a sense of perspective about what’s important in this world. Spending every waking hour chasing money isn’t it.

2. Self-promotion. Skipping over…
3. Ah, I can sense the irony this time. That said, it’s interesting that in this comment as well as elsewhere you emphasise “getting pageviews” as a goal. And some commenters elsewhere speculate that this controversy was all manufactured specifically to generate pageviews. I’ll come back to that later.

More generally, this issue has certainly become polarised and very personal, hasn’t it! Another TechCrunch writer has bought into it. Even your own employees are writing self-justifications, pieces which only link to one side of the discussion, and even quote a dead president in a way which implies that a web start-up is a “worthy cause” — which it isn’t, it’s just about getting rich.

More soon…

At the three companies I’ve run in my life (Silicon Alley Reporter, Weblogs, inc, and now Mahalo) I’ve had nearly zero voluntary turnover. Those were all very demanding work environments, but they were also filled with uber talented folks who went on to big things. Xeni from Boingboing and Rafat Ali from PaidContent worked at Silicon Alley Reporter, Peter Rojas (RCRDLBL), Judith Meskill, and Brian Alvey (CrowdFusion) were at Weblogs, Inc. The list goes on and on of people who worked with me who went on to do great things. I think this is because a) I’ve got an eye for talented, hard-working folks, and b) I’ve always created supportive and challenging environments where people can grow — a lot!

Now… you’ve spent two posts on this and it’s time for you to get back to work. I expect you to put in 10 hours each day this weekend and I don’t want you to look up from that keyboard until you’re the top story on TechMeme again!

Work!
Work!
Work!

best j

Calacanis deserves a nomination for “worst retcon ever”.