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State of Startups

stateofstartups.firstround.com

91–100 of 122 posts

Re: State of Startups

#92
post #89

There's a disconnect between founders who want to build a startup and founders who want to build a business. They think the two are the same but they're really not and this study clearly shows that. There are situations where startups turn into businesses but I'd rather build a profitable business for myself from the start and our team than to build a startup purely focused on "growth".

I am very disconnected from the "startup" world, and something in your comment has me asking: What is the difference between a startup and a business? To me, they ought to be one in the same...

Re: State of Startups

#93
post #65

> 9. Are you optimizing for growth or profitability? > Profitability - 39% > Growth - 61% This is what happens when your business goal is to get acquired and not to have a business sustained by paying customers.

Well this is one of the few but key differences between a "startup" and a "business." A business that isn't profitable is either a hobby or a bad idea. A startup that isn't growing is dead. Personally I'd rather make $5/10/15/25k a month with a business than kill myself trying to get millions in funding, pay myself a $10k/mo in salary and leave with nothing through either failure, dilution or some combination thereof…

> A business that isn't profitable is either a hobby or a bad idea. A startup that isn't growing is dead.

Time will tell, but I think this is the line of thinking that we'll look back on with disdain in years to come.

Re: State of Startups

#94

> 9. Are you optimizing for growth or profitability? > Profitability - 39% > Growth - 61% This is what happens when your business goal is to get acquired and not to have a business sustained by paying customers.

Replace "Dotcom" with "Startup"... same situation from my admittedly outside perspective.

Re: State of Startups

#95
post #89

There's a disconnect between founders who want to build a startup and founders who want to build a business. They think the two are the same but they're really not and this study clearly shows that. There are situations where startups turn into businesses but I'd rather build a profitable business for myself from the start and our team than to build a startup purely focused on "growth".

I am very disconnected from the "startup" world, and something in your comment has me asking: What is the difference between a startup and a business? To me, they ought to be one in the same...

Paul Graham (and Y Combinator I guess) believe that the difference is the goals.

A startup is a company designed to grow fast. PG, 2012

http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2013/12/16/what-...

a startup is a company designed to scale very quickly

Steve Blank believes a startup is determined by the search of a business model. If you have a business model, then you have a small or new company, not a startup.

https://steveblank.com/2014/03/04/why-companies-are-not-star...

Re: State of Startups

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there were less than 5 girls on my computer science class, so unless woman are claim that they should have the job without education. I can totally see the reason why there is a gender diversity in IT?

This data point isn't super useful without telling us the total size of your class. 5 out of 5–10 is great, 5 out of 25–50 might be realistic, 5 out of 100+, not great.

I'm from a class of 30. There were 2 women. This is in Ireland though.

Re: State of Startups

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I mean is, Europe generally does not even come close to that level of pay/compensation. So I assumed that these are US based startups. I could be wrong though.

Yes but you (generally) get other things like universal healthcare, free or cheap university, retirement plans, no need for a car due to proper urban planning, etc. In the US you have to shell out for all these things, paying into a private 401(k) for retirement, paying back student loan debt, paying for your health insurance etc. And these are at well funded tech firms.

>no need for a car due to proper urban planning

Most European cities were built before urban planning was a thing.

Re: State of Startups

#99
> And it only gets less balanced with time. Among respondents' companies, the boards of later-stage startups are almost three times less likely to have a woman on their board.

If later-stage companies are older (probably correlated, but not perfectly), then this could be a function of the year in which the boards were created.

There's more of a push for diverse boards now than there was 3 years ago, so if a company got funding and formed a board back then, it's not surprising their board would look different.

Re: State of Startups

#100
> Now’s the time to launch companies and set sail.

> Though the majority of founders say we’re in a bubble, 9 out of 10 founders believe that it’s a good time to be starting a company. All aboard!

Wow that's the worst example of sample bias I've ever seen. It betrays the fund's motives behind this post, I suppose.

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