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In today’s email

• I spent time in several big tech HQs, VC offices, startup hubs, and co-working spaces this summer

• What I found was hilarious, inspiring, disappointing, shocking, and expected, all at the same time

• Instead of ranting about AI for the umpteenth week in a row? The Adventures of a Big Tech Intern

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• Solving high ticket fees and low attendance issues

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• Raising funds for expansion; profitable with 656k users

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BIG TECH

Part 1: Where is everyone?

Tuesday, wee hours of the morning (11:30am).

I was in touch with an old friend, currently an employee of a Seattle tech behemoth. His name? James (definitely…).

James’ team supports the backend of this company’s oldest, most widely-integrated product. He loves his work and speaks fondly of the company. They pay superbly and facilitate a heavenly work-life balance.

We planned to meet at HQ, meaning I had to escape my downtown temporary apartment—not as simple as you might think. I dodged 13 homeless track stars, skirted 4 drug deals, and finally made it to my car. (The car was parked on the same block.)

After removing my bulletproof vest I excitedly joined the 10,000-car line to merge onto the only free parking lot in the country, I-90.

The office was merely 3 miles away, so I was happy to arrive in only 4 hours.

HQ

The campus was frankly stunning. Fresh air, blue skies, open space, and greenery everywhere. The buildings sculpted the courtyards into a walled garden—truly a warm yet invigorating environment. An impossible conception back in NYC.

As we walked toward his building, we passed through a tennis court, a soccer field, 3 cafes, 2 treehouses, and a balcony overlooking the city.

I was so taken by the atmosphere that only 15 minutes later did I stop and think: “where is everyone?” I hadn’t seen more than 5 people. Not even inside the buildings.

I suppose big tech employees are fantastic at hide and seek.

When asked why nobody was around, James simply said, “they don’t need to be here, so why would they be?”

Finally, in James’ main building, we had our first proximal human sighting. It was like discovering life on Mars. 5 interns were (intensely) playing poker on a conference table.

All other rooms were empty.

Actually, I take that back—two dudes were playing Asphalt 8 in the designated video game room.

I wanted some insight into the intern experience at this company, so we talked to the resident poker savants. What I found was incredibly revealing, especially when compared to the startup experience (later).

90% of the interns limited their “work” to meetings, most of which they took from home. The other 10% were frantically fixing issues I couldn’t believe were real.

Many interns with brilliant ideas spent their days editing PRDs and writing user journeys never to be read by another human.

One intern sat on his hands (and played poker hands) for a week while waiting for his manager to approve a programming package installation. On a personal computer.

How is it possible that so little gets done by occupants of the most coveted jobs in the world? These are, supposedly, the best of the best. Are they complacent? Unmotivated? Burdened by bureaucracy?

STARTUP LAND

Part 2: Here they are

In Bellevue, WA, I found myself in a small-ish VC office for most of the summer. The design was clever—one half dedicated to portfolio companies, the other half used by VC staff.

I saw about the same number of people every day as I’d noticed on the big tech’s campus.

On the startup side, while people filtered in and out throughout the day, a few usual suspects remained in the evenings, squashing bugs or shipping features. The VCs were typically gone by 4pm (except for their hardest working analyst—shoutout to you buddy).

The energy was entirely different to the big tech campus. Smaller spaces, tense faces, and lively conversations on Wednesdays (the typical choice for all-in-person days).

And boy, were the startups shipping. One in particular was deploying upgrades almost on the daily. It was incredible, and mostly coded by the CTO himself. No need to wait a week for package permission or a month for a code review.

The CEO was in everyone’s business, working through marketing plans, orchestrating GTM, reviewing UI features, and leaving the room when ideas veered into grey area (plausible deniability is king).

Working with their team—5 people getting shit done while having such fun—was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. The feeling of obsession and upward progression is second to none.

It felt like worlds were backwards: imagine throwing the big tech employees in this office and dedicating a campus to hundreds of startups and their backers. The campus would actually get used. Serendipity between companies would be maximized.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Learnings

A couple days ago, The Verge reported that Elon Musk is requiring X employees to justify their requests for stock-based compensation.

The media did not hold back their criticism, as is standard with Elon-related news. Don’t get me wrong—criticism is necessary, and working for Elon or Jensen is not a cakewalk.

(Read more about working for Jensen in a previous edition.)

And famously, when Elon bought Twitter, he laid off 80% of its staff.

It’s tough for the biggest companies to operate as efficiently as a startup. The trouble arises when they don’t need to—then, they don’t even try. ZIRP manifested this; the only logical conclusion being layoffs.

Structure

Some companies strive for startup-level efficiency by re-organizing their corporate structures. Apple, for example, operates almost like a hedge fund, with pods of small teams working towards a shared goal. Pods often compete to build the same product, motivated to send their own version into production.

And then, there’s Nvidia.

Thoughts

I personally don’t disagree with Elon’s SBC requirement. As an employee, you’re paid to do a job. As an owner, your equity represents your risk. Those employees who take ownership and go above and beyond out of necessity, self-determination, and love for the company are the ones who deserve handsome stock-based comp.

Recently, Starbucks ex-CEO Laxman Narasimhan was fired after making a comment about being unreachable after hours. Separately, Google ex-CEO Eric Schmidt made headlines for a comment on the shift in corporate priorities.

He later walked back his comments, obviously after receiving backlash from Google stakeholders.

The point? Schmidt said the quiet part out loud. You simply can’t afford to deviate from first principles.

PS: Thanks to all those who made my time in Seattle meaningful. Till next time.

ABOUT RTF

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Last week, we mapped out the future of compute.

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