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Ask HN: What's the point in creating a startup when anyone can copy it in days?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the point in creating a startup when anyone can copy it in days?

#21

Post by 1attice »

Back a step. You presuppose the possibility of a point, but is there still such a possibility?

This seems like a weird, almost metaphysical question, but I've been coming back to it a lot lately.

Is the goal financial independence? If so, there are much more efficient, risk-off ways of getting that. (For example, a nursing degree, or a red seal in plumbing.) You are choosing to work in grindhouse conditions with no union or safety net, where ageism or just burnout will eventually make you unhireable. There is only so much 996 in a person, and the winners take all. Most of the easy wins are behind us.

Ok then, maybe it isn't for the money, then. So is it to usher in the future? Be the hand that twists the dial?

But in that case, what compels you to believe that you've identified a worthwhile future to blithely endorse? The laws of unexpected consequences are binding, and the judgments are severe.

Is it for the love of the activity, then? The making? Well, that part's been automated this past year or three, so at best you will be a restaurant critic, not a chef.

I'm not sure the magic is still vital.

Re: Ask HN: What's the point in creating a startup when anyone can copy it in days?

#22

Post by HeritageLab »

What is easy to copy is usually the final crystallization.

What is hard to copy is the architecture that kept choosing that crystallization over all the others.

copyable artifact ≠ copyable architecture

That is why “they can clone it in days” is often true at the product layer and still incomplete at the company layer.

They cloned the surface, not the engine.

Re: Ask HN: What's the point in creating a startup when anyone can copy it in days?

#23

Post by pai99 »

3minus1 wrote: post #20
bdr7r6 wrote: post #14

Thats the point. Its all about how much risk you are willing to take. Thats what startups are supposed to represent - the risk takers of the population for whom the story has a high likelihood it wont end happily ever after. Check out the Explore-Exploit Tradeoff which tells us what the Carrying Capicity of a group for risk takers is. Its never been high. Maybe 5% of any population. Out of which 4.99% fail. With thos…

> With those odds populations cant have everyone taking risk. Such populations sooner or later go extinct. Not trying to be a jerk, but there is a logical fallacy here. If you've ever read the Selfish Gene the central idea is that there is a common misunderstanding that animals/societies evolve for "the good of the population". A population is better understood as a collection of individuals with each being a collect…

Selfish Gene story is detached from how systems survive environmental change and unpredictability. Thats where Explore Exploit Ratio comes in. And how many Explorers a population can sustain has an upper limit. Which is always low. The Limit is not dependent on whether people are explorers or exploiters but on resources available in the environement around them which is constantly changing.

Re: Ask HN: What's the point in creating a startup when anyone can copy it in days?

#26

Post by damnitbuilds »

Some people make it even simpler to copy their code by open sourcing it, then make money by offering extra paid-for services ( thinking of Pspdfkit ).

I would love to do that myself, but I have no idea how easy it is to make money that way ?

Re: Ask HN: What's the point in creating a startup when anyone can copy it in days?

#27

Post by nip »

aristofun wrote: post #16

Extremely ignorant point of view. Author obviously never launched anything beyond a hellow world

Very likely, but you don’t need to be so aggressive and dismissive.

Anyone who has achieved “distribution” knows. Anyone else is just lacking experience.

Answering like you did is akin to gatekeeping. The world is better with more builders. We should encourage anyone who wants to give it a shot

Re: Ask HN: What's the point in creating a startup when anyone can copy it in days?

#28

Post by aristofun »

nip wrote: post #27
aristofun wrote: post #16

Extremely ignorant point of view. Author obviously never launched anything beyond a hellow world

Very likely, but you don’t need to be so aggressive and dismissive. Anyone who has achieved “distribution” knows. Anyone else is just lacking experience. Answering like you did is akin to gatekeeping. The world is better with more builders. We should encourage anyone who wants to give it a shot

I’m not dismissive, i refute the point OP was worried being true about

Re: Ask HN: What's the point in creating a startup when anyone can copy it in days?

#29

Post by shivaniShimpi_ »

HeritageLab wrote: post #22

What is easy to copy is usually the final crystallization. What is hard to copy is the architecture that kept choosing that crystallization over all the others. copyable artifact ≠ copyable architecture That is why “they can clone it in days” is often true at the product layer and still incomplete at the company layer. They cloned the surface, not the engine.

this is the right frame. i'd add one layer though, the architecture itself is built from user understanding that compounds over time. every conversation with a user, every weird edge case, every "wait why did they do that" moment is load bearing. someone copying your product on day one is copying a snapshot of what you knew then, not what you know now and then by the time they ship their copy you've already moved. the gap isn't the code it's the accumulated context about why the code is the that it is
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