"It started out intense, they had so many things they wanted me to do, I showed up at 8:30 and didn’t leave till 6, they’d captured my heart and mind… or at least convinced me it was worth my time."
Here's some advice, if you think that schedule is intense, you're not ready for a startup...
Ah right, you have to be at the startup for 18 hours a day to be "intense" or "dedicated."
Its ok if you roll in at 10am, spend an hour horsing around on Hacker News, another hour drinking company beer at 7:30pm, and another hour at lunch running with folks, you are "dedicated" and "intense".
Nevermind that you spent less time working that the OP - you have to have no life outside of the startup to be "intense" and "startup worthy."
For me, I'd rather have the poster - he sounds like a great employee - works hard, contributes outside his area, and seemingly has a life outside of work that probably rests his brain such that he isn't constantly exhausted like you.
Couldn't agree more. Intense can be due to working on really hard problems (or even the extra time/energy to learn something new). Just as easily, it can be due to poor planning or improper communication within the company. Unfortunately, if one is passionate about doing a good job and enjoying what you are doing, you might not be able to realize when your extra efforts are really the expectation than what should be the norm.
The fact that the OP was able to grasp this particular issue so early on shows a maturity and insight that even senior engineers who go to work at startups might miss.
I stand by my definition that 9.5 hours in a work day is far from intense. This applies to corporate culture, small business culture, and especially startup culture.
I won't lower myself to respond to personal attacks which fill the rest of your post.
That's quite a leap of judgement. Of course building a company will be a lot more intense. That's absolutely no indication that he's not ready. Besides, intensity has to do with the rate at which he works and nothing to do with how long he works.
This needs to be said, butt in chair hours =/= work hours. My brain is constantly thinking about problems I'm trying to solve or what I need to do next. At home, at work I often will be thinking of things and walk to my computer to either do them or note stuff down. My best hours aren't all at the office since often there is a lot of other things that interrupt me there.
Peopleware should be required reading in startupland.
Not really ready for a position of responsibility in many US corporate workplaces, either.
And this is symptomatic of author's lack of experience. Prodigies excepted, a person right out of school probably doesn't have sufficient knowledge to accurately diagnose business processes, marketing communications, and UX design paradigms holistically.
Letters don't always need to be pitch perfect and early versions of solutions sell on problem solving, not interface design.
More importantly, many true startups have a business model that is fundamentally flawed without considering the potential for large infusions of outside capital. That's why most crash and burn.
That's not to say that leaving a place where paychecks bounce is a bad idea. Assuming one is the smartest person in the room, however, probably is.
Here's some advice, if you think that schedule is intense, you're not ready for a startup...