Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers

Re:Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers by dstik on Friday October 16, 2009 @12:24PM (#885658)

If flipping burgers isn't for you, I received a great piece of advice once, take some time and work for a used car dealership for a few months. Point being everyone should learn how to sell, how to be a salesman, you can be the most technical person in the room but without the ability to "sell" people on your product or articulate what makes it worth while, you are missing a key element. And face it, if you can be successful selling used cars (or cars in general, in this economy) you'll have a very practical skillset.

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Re:Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers by kalvin on Friday October 16, 2009 @01:30PM (#885775)

Confessions of a Car Salesman: http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article....

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Re:Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers by tomjen2 on Friday October 16, 2009 @01:24PM (#885768)

I would rather risk being bad at selling and get to keep my soul.

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Re:Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers by petewarden on Friday October 16, 2009 @03:31PM (#886020)

Up-voted from oblivion not because I agree, but because it's a common attitude that I held for a long time, but which now drives me nuts.

Maybe my soul leaked away while I wasn't looking, but I've had to spend a lot of time selling in the last year, and the typical hacker contempt for 'marketroids' is way off the mark. It's a deep, deep art that deserves respect.

Can you cut corners, be a douche-bag and rip people off? Sure, but it doesn't work as well as you think, and show me a programmer who hasn't shipped something that has made at least one person's life a misery. All the used-car salesmen in the world have nothing on the Windows OS developers if you want to compare suffering inflicted on the world. I still can't look someone in the eye if I know they spent good money on the F1 '98 game I worked on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_1_98

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Re:Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers by HistoryInAction on Friday October 16, 2009 @04:28PM (#886115)

Earning and keeping trust is a very major part of sales--at least repeated sales--that I've learned about over the past year or two. Rip someone off and not only are they never coming back, but they're telling a bunch of people (~5) that you are untrustworthy. Big net loss in my book.

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Re:Startup Founders Should Flip Burgers by thetrumanshow on Friday October 16, 2009 @03:36PM (#886027)

I had a pastor who worked as a used car salesman during the day because our small congregation couldn't afford to pay him a full-time salary.

I have always thought that this was the worst kind of conflict of interest.

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