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Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

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Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#231

Post by dahart »

Terr_ wrote: post #223
dahart wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of Social Darwinism before? Its not a term I made up, and you've succinctly identified the exact reason it's so questionable. From Wikipedia: Social Darwinism is a modern name given to various theories of society that emerged in the United Kingdom, North America, and Western Europe in the 1870s, which claim to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology and p…

> the sources the article used to back up its own claims You've got it all backwards: The article is ARGUING AGAINST the inc.com thesis of an "entrepreneurship gene", calling it a myth : > New research out this week [...] found that environmental factors (not genetic) most influenced behavior, pointing to the fact that risk tolerance is conditioned over time (dispelling the myth of an elusive “entrepreneurship gene“)…

Disagreeing with inc.com assumes that inc.com's Social Darwinism argument has merit in the first place. You are agreeing with me and making the same point I am.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#232

Post by radmuzom »

ThomPete wrote: post #146
radmuzom wrote: post #11

Ten years back, when I was fresh out of college, I joined a startup - not as a founder but as the first employee. A lot of it was driven by reading Paul Graham's essays, and I was naive and immature enough to believe that I was doing something great (as an aside, I came from an economically disadvantaged family; and every cent of my assets today is something I have earned and not something which I have inherited or o…

I agree with you but with one important caveat. The difference is that today you can build a side project on the side while working in a company and hopefully build something up that way. This wasn't possible 20 years ago in the same way.

Yep, that's exactly what I am planning on doing. At this stage, gaining some knowledge around a few ideas which interest me.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#233

Post by mindcrime »

thyrsus wrote: post #229
mindcrime wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how you can say it offers any value. There are no actionable insights here. You can't change your family, so in the end, every individual still faces exactly the same choice: pursue the entrepreneurial path, or not. What other people did and what their circumstances were is irrelevant. If the article purported to prove that it is impossible to succeed as an entrepreneur without coming from a rich family,…

The article summarizes imporant data . Action items I take from the article: * Plan that most of my competitors are better funded than I am because of family and social strata. * Compensate for those deficits before engaging in a startup, either as founder or employee. E.g., look for an angel investor (difficult, because there are none associated with my family or friends). * Stick to my day job. * Be open to governm…

Plan that most of my competitors are better funded than I am

That should be your assumption anyway. "Hope for the best, plan for the worst". Besides, most startups aren't killed by competition, they're killed by building a product nobody wants.

Compensate for those deficits before engaging in a startup

Again, anybody founding a startup already knows they are facing an uphill battle. This article doesn't present any data that would change that.

look for an angel investor (difficult, because there are none associated with my family or friends).

You think everybody who ever got angel investment got it because their friends and family knew angels? How about going to entrepreneurial themed events in your area and networking and meeting angels, VCs, and other founders there? Don't live in an area with that kind of thing? Move. (That's what I did, FWIW). Check AngelList and/or scour LinkedIn to find local angels, and find a way to work your way into an introduction to them. Hint: founders of existing startups are often very open to helping new founders network and meet investors and what-not. Cold email celebrity investors (low percentage, but Mark Cuban has done deals that came in as cold emails). Apply to go on Shark Tank.

Be open to government policy proposals that would even the playing field - not to take it away from the wealthy, but to provide an on-ramp for the non-wealthy.

Meh. These kinds of policies may be well-intentioned, but most have unintended consequences that outweigh any good they do.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#234

Post by dlo »

Here's how you can simulate coming from a wealthy family.

1) Reduce your personal burn rate. 2) Save money, enough to last more than a year on your reduced burn rate. 3) Develop high-demand, valuable skills so you will always be able to get a job if things go south.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#235

Post by crdoconnor »

xiaoma wrote: post #216
crdoconnor wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think it's quite different in the software startup industry. You usually don't need much capital You still need a distribution channel. That requires either capital or connections.

Jack Ma had neither when he started Alibaba. And whatever handicap not having connections is now in the west, it was a much larger one a decade ago in China.

Jack Ma worked for the Ministry of Foreign trade in China before he founded Alibaba.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#236

Post by asanagi »

kelukelugames wrote: post #184
cryoshon wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson from this is don't drink anyone's kool aid consciously. PG has a huge incentive to wax heroic about the "risk takers" "makers" and "founders"; it's the Silicon Valley cargo cult, and should be compensated against in the mind of the reader. Always be brutally critical of applying the question of qui bono-- always, no exceptions, ever. PG has little incentive to explicitly qualify ideas that are his foundati…

>honestly it's quite annoying to have someone tell you so with the intention of taking you down a peg. This is why a lot of HNers flag articles about privilege, sexism, etc.

Maybe it's because the website is called "Hacker News" and not "Gender Ideologue News".

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#237

Post by radmuzom »

daddykotex wrote: post #133
radmuzom wrote: post #11

Ten years back, when I was fresh out of college, I joined a startup - not as a founder but as the first employee. A lot of it was driven by reading Paul Graham's essays, and I was naive and immature enough to believe that I was doing something great (as an aside, I came from an economically disadvantaged family; and every cent of my assets today is something I have earned and not something which I have inherited or o…

Would you elaborate on how different is the life as the employee compared to the life of the founder (in your experience)?

In this specific case, 1. Very low salary - just enough to afford housing and food. 2. No equity - though the founders promised that I would get some later (yeah, I know I was an idiot). 3. Working 12 hour days including Saturdays.

The founders were quite rich and they were of course passionate about their own company because of which they worked even more than me, but I could never feel the same enthusiasm. Interestingly, both of them had worked for larger companies, studied in and traveled to various countries for work which gave me the idea that perhaps it is better to be in a start-up once I have experienced what they have.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#238

Post by cylinder »

grandalf wrote: post #175

People with more money do more of everything... they have more fun, more sex partners, better sex, more entertaining lives, more meaningful lives, more profound moments, more meaningful relationships, and make more of an impact on humanity. This is not a value judgment. Having access to resources means having more freedom. That's freedom to do what you want, to think about what matters, to exercise, to eat healthy, t…

Well, yeah. Those reasons are exactly why people desire to earn money.

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#239

Post by radmuzom »

aianus wrote: post #50
radmuzom wrote: post #11

Ten years back, when I was fresh out of college, I joined a startup - not as a founder but as the first employee. A lot of it was driven by reading Paul Graham's essays, and I was naive and immature enough to believe that I was doing something great (as an aside, I came from an economically disadvantaged family; and every cent of my assets today is something I have earned and not something which I have inherited or o…

> Now after ten years mostly working in large companies, I have some savings which will allow me to last two years in case I lose my job. After 10 years of being a software engineer you should have enough to retire forever (albeit in some third world country).

I am from a third world country myself :) and have always earned in the country's currency. And even though I did start working as a software engineer in the startup I mentioned, I did not eventually continue in the field and do statistical modelling for a living (which pays much more than the average software engineer here).

Re: Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money

#240

Post by nostrebored »

kelukelugames wrote: post #184
cryoshon wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson from this is don't drink anyone's kool aid consciously. PG has a huge incentive to wax heroic about the "risk takers" "makers" and "founders"; it's the Silicon Valley cargo cult, and should be compensated against in the mind of the reader. Always be brutally critical of applying the question of qui bono-- always, no exceptions, ever. PG has little incentive to explicitly qualify ideas that are his foundati…

>honestly it's quite annoying to have someone tell you so with the intention of taking you down a peg. This is why a lot of HNers flag articles about privilege, sexism, etc.

Damn man, people really wanted to prove your point.
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