Well, I did it. After spending my entire adult life working in massive corporations, I took the plunge and joined a startup exactly 248 days ago. It’s been a terrifying, exhilarating, exhausting, incredible ride so far, so I wanted to take a minute to write down a few things I’ve learned.

• Amazing people make all the difference. There have been a few moments in the last eight months where I have no idea how I would have made it without the rest of the Flywheel team. When you never have to worry about coworkers carrying their weight, it’s a totally freeing experience.

• Young companies are exhausting. I’ve never worked harder in my life, even when I was helping launch iPhones for Apple. You’re being pulled in a million different directions, and everyone has to wear every hat at various points during the day. I’ve never been more mentally exhausted than after a couple recent projects. I never used to understand how people could get “burnt out” working a job they love, but I get it now. Which is why:

• Culture is critical. When everyone is staying late to work on support tickets, or landing back home at midnight after a whirlwind trip across the country, being just “coworkers” doesn’t cut it. Even little things, like eating lunch together or watching a stupid video helps. Inside jokes, musical tastes, and pronunciation of “GIF” can be just as important as someone’s skill at debugging PHP.

Coming from a couple Fortune 500 companies before this, I was more than a little nervous to work for a young company. It’s a massive change to be given freedom to shape your job and the company you work for, and I can’t imagine not having this freedom ever again.

Bottom line, I’ve never been happier. Here’s to 2015.

The delivery room is clean, a nearly suffocating whiteness enveloping the occupants. The expectant mother, screaming through the agony of labor, begs the engineers for something to dull the pain.
Their silence is deafening.
She screams again; one last push and the first genetically modified human has entered this world.
The engineers look down – the look of disappointment written in their eyes.
“What is it? What’s wrong?!?”
“THIS UPDATE INCLUDES MINOR IMPROVEMENTS.”

The prairie is dry, the ground cracked from a millennia of over-farming. A famished child, stomach distended and covered in filth, crawls through the dirt. She bumps into something soft; a pair of denim pants ending in Adidas sandals.
“We’re so hungry. Have you brought something for us?”
The man’s head almost imperceptibly moves. A nod, only visible from the slight rustling of his hoodie.
He reaches into his pockets, dropping something into the girl’s outstretched hands. It’s small, and impossibly warm.
She considers it, unsure.
“What is it, sir?”, she asks.
“BUG FIXES AND PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS.”

A cattle prod jabs out, a painful reminder of their status as the last humans on Earth.
“Have mercy!”, they plead to the robotic sentries.
No response. Their algorithms are programmed only for improving engagement with the brand, not for sympathy.
“When will the suffering end?!?”, the refugees scream.
The bots pause. They seem to consider the situation. Dusty speakers crackle to life, breaking their hundred-year silence.
“TO MAKE OUR APP BETTER FOR YOU, WE RELEASE UPDATES EVERY TWO WEEKS.” Continue reading →