Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
sameer.madhouse.in
Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
#2While I am sympathetic to the author's thesis, the discussion is pretty meaningless unless you acknowledge that there is opportunity cost to doing a startup. Sure, you learn a lot and set up good contacts even if your startup fails - but the risk is in what other opportunities you might be missing. It's not sufficient to just be better off than when you started.
Re: Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
#3something is missing here, who is paying you when you starting your venture? your saving, angel fund?
Re: Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
#4What this doesn't take into account is the fact that 90+% of kids out of college who decide to become entrepreneurs don't get traction, don't network with other CEOs, and aren't getting the respect of people even if they fail. It's like only looking at the failures among companies that have been YC funded, and not looking at all the companies that failed after not even getting funded.
Re: Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
#5This is a pretty rosy "worst case" scenario. madhouse was acquired; most people would consider that a success. The vast majority of failed startup founders do not get a VP position at their next job.
I suspect that for the vast majority of failed startups, the cost is mostly pride and the lost wages of having a steady job for that 2-3 years. The benefit is whatever experience you gain from that time period - people will judge you based on your skill level and what you've learned.
There's also a much-worse case where people take on $100ks of debt, lose their friends, lose their home, get divorced, and waste 10 years of their life on a venture that was doomed from the start. This outcome is fairly easily avoided by keeping perspective and constantly re-evaluating whether the potential upside merits the risks you're taking, but it does happen to some people.
Re: Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
#6If you get traction and press attention particularly, then doors and options open up to you. Also if you have a chance to speak at a conference you get a lot of respect, often from people who didn't know who you were previously.
However, getting traction and press attention are the hardest bits. Also, how much of your own money do you lose before quitting?
That said, even if you fail, if you had a job before, the chances are you could at least do the same thing again after.
Re: Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
#7That's very simple to say after the fact.
Re: Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
#8The title of this article contradicts itself and doesn't match the content of the article, which contains an awful lot of "if's" to sustain the words "risk free".
I almost stopped reading after inferring that he believes being the CEO of a startup that your interviewer has never heard of, and for which "traction" probably can't be defined in less than 10 minutes of conversation, is a credential that will improve your chances at another company.
Selling a company is an accomplishment. Usually. (Sometimes that "sale" is a marketing fiction, but, whatever). Most entrepreneurs --- in fact, most of the entrepreneuers that get traction --- don't manage to sell their companies.
Re: Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
#9The title of this article contradicts itself and doesn't match the content of the article, which contains an awful lot of "if's" to sustain the words "risk free". I almost stopped reading after inferring that he believes being the CEO of a startup that your interviewer has never heard of, and for which "traction" probably can't be defined in less than 10 minutes of conversation, is a credential that will improve your…
I disagree completely, at least for young entrepreneurs.
I started a hosted email company in high-school, and while it never really went anywhere, it was the single greatest thing on my resume.
It made me stand far above most other applicants, proved that I could start and complete something interesting, and gave me a lot of real-world experiences to talk about in an interview, as opposed to the standard "In this database class I took..."
Re: Entrepreneurship is risk free: Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much
#10The title of this article contradicts itself and doesn't match the content of the article, which contains an awful lot of "if's" to sustain the words "risk free". I almost stopped reading after inferring that he believes being the CEO of a startup that your interviewer has never heard of, and for which "traction" probably can't be defined in less than 10 minutes of conversation, is a credential that will improve your…
I disagree completely, at least for young entrepreneurs. I started a hosted email company in high-school, and while it never really went anywhere, it was the single greatest thing on my resume. It made me stand far above most other applicants, proved that I could start and complete something interesting, and gave me a lot of real-world experiences to talk about in an interview, as opposed to the standard "In this dat…
By all means start a company instead of playing World of Warcraft, hanging out at Denny's, and going to Fall Out Boy concerts. You're right. Starting a company is basically risk-free when you're in high school (though note that it's not risk free when you're in college; getting a degree would be an incredible pain in the ass for me now, and I traded that opportunity for a startup win in the '90s).