11–20 of 38 posts
On the divorce rate, that's across all marriages, and it's closer to 40%. If you marry after 20, both are college-educated, and have known each other for 18 months before getting engaged, your odds are a lot better.
I dislike posts like this because they foster a mindset that you have to "go all in" to start a business, when in fact that's just how financiers want you to do it. You don't. Plenty of businesses start cautiously and grow organically. What you have to be a fool to do is to bank 3-5 years of your life on a 1/20 shot at a 7 figure acquisition. Fortunately, only a tiny fraction of the people who try to do this get fund…
Who are you to say that a year spent working on a startup is a lost year? Why is it foolish spend 3 to 5 years on something that might just change the world, especially if you enjoy the ride? I bet that 20 teams shooting for a 7 figure exit will be on average much more successful than 20 teams building a cautious/lifestyle business. You could even argue that shooting for a 7 figure exit is the selfless thing to do, b…
Let me save 5 years of your life for you:
* Getting funded is harder than everything on Hacker News makes it sound.
* You can waste truly spectacular amounts of money without earning anything from customers in return from it, and when you do that, you wind up in meetings with salespeople, meetings with marketing people, meetings with PR people, meetings with engineers about the marketing people, meetings with the CEO, and, oops! Now it's time to go home.
Second: No. Shooting for a 7 figure exit is not a "selfless" thing to do. We didn't do that and we've created more jobs than a lot of funded YC companies have. The difference between companies that exit and companies that don't isn't headcount.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You replaced your boss with a customer. No real change there; You're still at the mercy of someone. I'd say you're a dumbass for not realizing this, but I'll decline to as we're supposed to keep a higher standard here on HN.
A boss can fire you even if you are bringing in a profit. All it takes is 1 bad day, or a mistaken belief that someone from India can do the same job for half the price. If you are the owner, it doesn't matter if one or two customers are hard to deal with. All you do is stop selling to them, and you will most likely still be in business.
That must make this Paul Graham guy an idiot and this whole YCombinator thing must be idiocy in action.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A boss can fire you even if you are bringing in a profit. All it takes is 1 bad day, or a mistaken belief that someone from India can do the same job for half the price. If you are the owner, it doesn't matter if one or two customers are hard to deal with. All you do is stop selling to them, and you will most likely still be in business.
A board can fire you and your whole team even if you're profitable. All it takes is 1 bad day, or a mistaken belief that outsourcing to a team in India can solve the same problem for half the price.
1. Already sold your company.
2. Didn't really contribute to its founding.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A board can fire you and your whole team even if you're profitable. All it takes is 1 bad day, or a mistaken belief that outsourcing to a team in India can solve the same problem for half the price.
If your company is happens to have a board that doesn't include you, you either 1. Already sold your company. 2. Didn't really contribute to its founding.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who are you to say that a year spent working on a startup is a lost year? Why is it foolish spend 3 to 5 years on something that might just change the world, especially if you enjoy the ride? I bet that 20 teams shooting for a 7 figure exit will be on average much more successful than 20 teams building a cautious/lifestyle business. You could even argue that shooting for a 7 figure exit is the selfless thing to do, b…
First, stop kidding yourself. The year everyone loses trying to get funded doesn't teach them anything other than "getting funded is harder than all the blog posts make it sound". The 3-5 years the "lucky" few lose on ultimately unsuccessful shoot-the-moon startups don't teach them anything other than "it is possible to waste a spectacular amount of money without much revenue in return for it, and that's a great way…
this "significant contribution to the economy (+ job creation)" part is especially delusional.
most of the jobs are still created by small businesses.
I dislike posts like this because they foster a mindset that you have to "go all in" to start a business, when in fact that's just how financiers want you to do it. You don't. Plenty of businesses start cautiously and grow organically. What you have to be a fool to do is to bank 3-5 years of your life on a 1/20 shot at a 7 figure acquisition. Fortunately, only a tiny fraction of the people who try to do this get fund…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your company is happens to have a board that doesn't include you, you either 1. Already sold your company. 2. Didn't really contribute to its founding.
"Not worth more than being laid-off" would be hyperbolic, but I'd guess that your private company non-preferred shares are worth a lot less than you think they are. I have stories from real, "successful" companies that screwed over everyone not currently on staff on exit. It's not hard to do.
This is like an employee accepting a $10/hour contract, and then complaining later that it was too low.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Not worth more than being laid-off" would be hyperbolic, but I'd guess that your private company non-preferred shares are worth a lot less than you think they are. I have stories from real, "successful" companies that screwed over everyone not currently on staff on exit. It's not hard to do.
If shares of your company were undersold and you lose controlling interest in the process, that is your own fault. Founders usually have a different class of stock which has more voting rights per value. This is like an employee accepting a $10/hour contract, and then complaining later that it was too low.