All the stress, risk and sleepless nights which come with running a startup, isn't worth the (potential) 10-10000x pay-off for me, when I already enjoy enough freedoms (autonomy + income + free time) to do what I love outside of my career. So I greatly prefer to piggy back a startups salary and compensation package instead, and hop to the next one a few years later. Having seen the inside of quite a few, I don't feel like I am missing out on starting one myself.
Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
11–20 of 47 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
#12Imo to really succeed as a founder you need either
1. 99.9th percentile technical brilliance
2. 99.9th percentile mixture of relentlessness and charm/natural likability due to charisma, attractiveness, etc
3. 99.9th percentile luck and alignment of the stars of marker forces and technological progress in your favor
Imo if you know you're not a special, magical person by the first two metrics, watching how things change/emerge will give you some edge on the third.
Re: Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
#13When I realised I would be "poor" all my life working for others, and reckoned I should try to pursue my business ideas.... It turned up I already have two kids and my daily costs are too high to leave my current job.
Re: Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
#14…still suffering from previous start up success. Acquisition was enough to turn it into full time corporate job but we were no unicorn.
So now I’m stuck in a comfortable job. With 2 young kids and expenses.
Re: Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
#15Imo to really succeed as a founder you need either 1. 99.9th percentile technical brilliance 2. 99.9th percentile mixture of relentlessness and charm/natural likability due to charisma, attractiveness, etc 3. 99.9th percentile luck and alignment of the stars of marker forces and technological progress in your favor Imo if you know you're not a special, magical person by the first two metrics, watching how things chan…
I kind of disagree. 1s aren't generally the type to start their own business, 2s are so you aren't going to be competing on technical merits.
Yes 3 is always valid. But I don't think you need to be the best individual at anything to 'succeed'
Although your use of 'founder' suggests a go big or go home mentality. There's nothing wrong with finding a niche.
Re: Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
#16Imo to really succeed as a founder you need either 1. 99.9th percentile technical brilliance 2. 99.9th percentile mixture of relentlessness and charm/natural likability due to charisma, attractiveness, etc 3. 99.9th percentile luck and alignment of the stars of marker forces and technological progress in your favor Imo if you know you're not a special, magical person by the first two metrics, watching how things chan…
I’ll add on to this - I’ve worked closely with a few folks I consider to be in that brilliant mix of charisma, business sense, and technical competency.
I’ve watched them found rock-solid companies and build great teams (I’ve worked on them)… and then for some reason several times in a VC-backed Boards like to bring in their own guys and push out the actual founders.
In short, I’ve watched VC rob my friends of their joy and in some cases cheat them of their blood, sweat, and equity. Good luck exercising those options on a non-IPO firm when you’re scrambling to find a new job to keep the mortgage current.
I’m really soured in the whole “start a startup.” There’s so much chicanery going on in the business world that it’s just sickening to see.
Re: Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
#17Age. Lack of time. Lack of practical knowledge. Inability to work with other people.
Re: Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
#18Risk aversion, which makes the bar for “great” near impossible to meet. From everything to career choice to investments, I made/make a statistical and risk minimizing decision. I ended up a software engineer looking at average outcomes and general failure points for different majors. Don’t get me wrong future employers, I do enjoy the work (as you would see on my resume), but if it had the prospects of a history majo…
You do realize that life does not exist because of money, but because of experiences along the way?
Re: Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
#19Writing novel tech is an endurance sport.
Most new technologies that blossom out to startups should be done in a university-like environment. I mean having knowledge on hand, similar staff members to mull ideas over, stable income and away from 'wfh'.
Doing all that from random locations, with the added stress of market-fit, marketing, taxes, ect is a headache.
Simply navigating the minefield of public tech and business knowledge without stupifying yourself and falling for inauthentic lies, is a danger.
It's going well though, wanted to point out those dangers for those playing along.
Re: Ask HN: Why haven't you started your startup?
#20I have ideas that are interesting and am pursuing them to some extent, but I don't see any personal value in operating anything beyond a small business, either as an individual or small team doing something else. There's a massive personal cost in running any business, and unless you have the secret actual privilege of connections, cash, and business influence out the gate or early on, it seems like a massive burden.
Edit: My choice of words was a little confusing. I meant that the scale I'd consider pursuing would be at most a tiny team, but more likely just me with some delegate contractors, or a traditional small business like a coffee shop. The amount of definite cost in seeking possible fortune through higher scale startups is not something I'm set up for or am interested in.