Protect positive, hard working people from the slackers

Jason Calacanis started an interesting debate about keeping costs down in a startup. One of his points was to fire people who were not workaholics, later changed to fire people who don’t love their work.

Fire people who are not workaholics. don’t love their work… come on folks, this is startup life, it’s not a game. don’t work at a startup if you’re not into it–go work at the post office or stabucks if you’re not into it you want balance in your life. For realz.

He got some heat from Duncan Riley from TechCrunch and the guys at 37 Signals. I my opinion Calacanis is right.

Startups run on cash. It’s like oxygen to them and without cash you will die a painful death. Anyone who has stressed out to the point of feeling like you’re going to throw up about missing a payroll or has had to close down an operation knows just how precious cash and time are.

The right people make all the positive difference in the world. Pissing away time and money on the wrong people is a sure path to failure. And not only do slackers waste time and money, they demoralize the people who are working hard to make it a success.