Except far more accurate IMHO. Alright sure you could be a rockstar developer (you could be a rockstar anything I guess), but being a expert programmer has nothing do with being a 'ninja'. They're just geeky terms that stuck.
A hustler, on the other hand, is exactly what business people must be in a startup. Far from having a well defined role, you must do whatever it takes to make it happen (whatever 'it' may be). Further, a hustler must operate outside the status quo whether they're in a startup or on the streets. While most programmers I know hate the ninja and rockstar labels, I find hustler to be quite endearing.
I know that languages evolve naturally, and words get repurposed all the time, but hustler? Really?.
hustler
n 1: a prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets
2: a shrewd or __unscrupulous__ person who knows how to circumvent difficulties
It also happens to be the title of a porn magazine that would make Hugh Hefner blush, while you won't often hear the term 'hustler' used in reference to a female prostitute, you will find it heavily used among gay men to refer to male prostitutes.
Perhaps repurposing 'hustler' without negative connotations will work, but this is a word with a lot of ugly baggage, and the first thing I thought of when I saw it used in reference to startups: dishonest businessmen.
[Addendum] For completeness, a dip into the modern lexicon:
Hustler is a monthly pornographic men's magazine
and general brand of Larry Flynt Publications.
Hustler or hustlers also commonly refers to:
- A practitioner of confidence tricks
- Someone who deceives others by hustling, usually in sports
- An American hip hop slang word for a pimp,
drug dealer or male prostitute
If a locally repurposed word like hustler has a very strong meaning outside your circles, chances are good that when you start talking about hustling in relation to business, a fair number of people are going to think swindler or worse.
It seems that a number of people like to use it as a self-description because it does have negative, edgy traits -- in the same sense of 'ninja'. Unlike 'ninja', however, 'hustler' can easily lie a bit too close to the truth.
I think "hustler" is exactly what it is and isn't hyperbole at all. Come on - who amongst us haven't played Rick Ross - "Hustlin'" after closing a deal. I'm guilty and so are many fellow foundas - er, founders... ;-)
I admit to playing "We are the champions" and "Eye of the Tiger" a few times after signing large contracts, but I never have had the feeling I was, well, hustlin' anyone:
Hustlin' doesn't mean "trying to make a quick buck", it means moving quickly towards your goal.
In this timeless piece, Ross discusses his fortunes in the trans-Atlantic pharmaceutical trade, at one point managing over 100 employees and reaping the fruits of his labor - all the while trying to maintain proprietary knowledge and head-off new entrants.
[Is there really much of a difference other than him being unlicensed to do this?]
As a senior hustler myself (in the hard working, making deals way) I would suggest that they look at just hiring a part time bookkeeper and an office assistant. It would cost less, not dilute equity, and they wouldn't have a hustler doing bookkeeping. As someone who has had to fix bad bookkeeping, I can assure you it is something you want to avoid. You could think of bad bookkeeping like bad code - it can be 10x the work to fix it as it was to do in the first place. But with bookkeeping you usually can't just pull it off github and rewrite it. You have to fix live systems that change everyday.
When I was running my completely un-funded zero-revenue startup, college kids would daily send me emails begging me to give them a job doing non-technical BS work, often for free.
Fortunately a non-technical rockstar (who is willing to work for dirt cheap) is substantially easier to find a technical rockstar... I imagine now after "The Social Network" social media startups almost have an entertainment industry-like glamor at the moment, like breaking into the music business or movies. Non-technical people often will work for free or dirt cheap for years to 'make it' in these fields.
Haha - it's funny how much startups are the same... We're doing the same thing and had the same (a non-engineer?!?) reservations. I must completely concur.
If I were looking for this kind of person, I'd want them to know that different people see tasks differently. Some people see simple design stuff as "bullshit work" while others see having to parse through server logs as "bullshit work."
This isn't an all-glamorous job. To portray it as such would be deceitful and would attract a different kind of individual, who would ultimately be let down.
