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Why Should I Start a Startup?

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#171

Post by brucephillips »

mwseibel wrote: post #111
tanilama wrote: post #31

The startup starts up because of money is often time uninspiring. It is a good thing that we have fewer startups like that. If you don't have a good problem, plz don't make a startup for it.

Our problem was how to create a reality tv show with Justin Kan wearing a camera on his head. Is that a good problem?

Are you arguing that startups shouldn't ensure they're solving an important problem?

Creating a reality show out of Justin's life probably wasn't an important problem to solve, but drawing some conclusion based on the successful Justin.TV -> Twitch pivot would be selection bias.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#172

Post by cctan »

xchefhatx wrote: post #65
ABCLAW wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. This is a nice dichotomy. Until you add "living out of a car with your pregnant wife and 2 year old child" to the things you have organized your life to do. Humans are very adverse to ruin, and this has nothing to do with what they want to do or achieve. It has to do with what they do not want to experience or put others through.

At some point we have to stop using "the wife" as an excuse. I can't tell you how many times a friend has used "the wife" as an excuse for... not starting a project, not finishing a project, not learning something new, not starting a lifestyle business, not investing, not changing their career, not leaving a sucky job It's not the wife, it's you.

This. If other people asked you whether you can start a project or not, and you reply using "wife" as an excuse, accept it for what it is. An excuse. I had met entrepreneur types that replied either yes or no, straight forward and no detour replies.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#173

Post by dlor »

emmett wrote: post #150
taurath wrote: post #77

I do find it rather hilarious that he dropped interest in yale for being too academic, but during my (failed) interview as a web developer at Twitch about 5 years ago, the questioning had to do with only academic subjects like graph traversal algorithms - they proudly stated when I applied that 90% of their employees come from an Ivy league background. Here's who I think should start a startup: - People with the back…

FWIW Michael wasn't at Twitch. He was at Justin.tv, our precursor. By the time you applied, if you applied to Twitch, you were 6 years post-founding and Michael had left. I do believe you were asked graph traversal algorithms in the interview. I might have asked the question myself, though by the time we had pivoted to Twitch we had mostly stopped asking those questions. It was very early on and we were still pretty…

I (successfully) interviewed with 'emmett at some point at twitch in 2011 or 2012. I didn't end up taking the offer and I don't remember the exact question, but I have a positive memory of the overall experience.

I don't remember anything overly academic or anyone bragging about ivy league percentages.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#174

Post by cctan »

nathan-wailes wrote: post #8

Great post! I love reading pre-company autobiographical accounts from successful founders, as I find it to be a great way to get ideas for what pre-company experiences might best prepare me to be successful myself. Some additions I would make to Michael's list for "Why to start a start-up": - As a founder you get a level of control over what problem you're solving that you'll rarely have as an employee. - You also ge…

With your income determined by the market, you can scale big, not limited just to your own 24 hours and two hands.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#175

Post by imesh »

nostrademons wrote: post #138
koolkatkool wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was airbnb a month away from being evicted or a month away from asking their parents for another deposit? Lots of rich kids play at being poor all the while knowing they can call home at any point.

I don't know the family situation of the AirBnB founders personally, but Wikipedia says both of them were social workers, which isn't exactly what most people would consider a rich kid background. I'm always a bit perplexed by the people who come out of the woodwork to say that startups are a rich kid's game, though. What's the family background of folks on this site? I understand that there's a wide variety of socio…

Yeah, your parents don't need to even be middle class in order for you to move back in with your parents, your parents just need to exist and be willing to let you back. In fact loads of poor people live with their parents...

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#176

Post by yvsong »

mwseibel wrote: post #2

Hey folks - happy to answer questions here

Years ago I saw a flyer of Justin.tv, thought it's an amateur college student TV project, and didn't see any potential. Now it's one of my favorite startup stories, due to the wild start and huge impact. Live broadcasting has become a red hot social medium, especially in red China.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#177

Post by MaxfordAndSons »

BjoernKW wrote: post #19
tristanho wrote: post #3

Loved this post, thanks! You mentioned the 3 constraints under which you (and many founders) thrive in: * Being the underdog * Hard challenges most people shy away from * Personal responsibility for outcomes Why are some people best under those conditions? Is it something trainable, or inherent?

I'd say most people would be. If you don't take responsibility and if you're not challenged, you can hardly expect to excel at anything. Many people either are too comfortable with their lives or are in too precarious a situation to ever get to try. That's probably also why we so rarely hear about rich kids with large trust funds accomplishing anything meaningful.

> That's probably also why we so rarely hear about rich kids with large trust funds accomplishing anything meaningful.

Interesting theory... but could perhaps be due to reporting bias? The trust funded who do succeed are unlikely to highlight that fact when telling the story of their success.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#178

Post by danek »

andkon wrote: post #153

I'd like to fill out the "maybe" part of his "If you answer yes three times, then maybe starting a startup is for you" bit. I answer a very strong yes to all three of those. Always have. But a startup, despite my always having worked in them and run one of my own for three years, was resolutely not a good idea for me. It took a lot of self-discovery to see myself not as an entrepreneur, but as an artist, and it's fru…

I feel the same way (though I never ran my own startup). On the surface it would make sense for me to start companies. I tick most of the boxes, but at heart I'm more of an artist. Maybe 10 years ago I'd be interested in spending five years of my life for a 1% chance of getting better returns than working for a regular salary. Also I'm no longer in my 20s, not independently wealthy, and most importantly I don't want the stress of being responsible for a company. But that's just where I'm at right now...

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#179

Post by taurath »

emmett wrote: post #150
taurath wrote: post #77

I do find it rather hilarious that he dropped interest in yale for being too academic, but during my (failed) interview as a web developer at Twitch about 5 years ago, the questioning had to do with only academic subjects like graph traversal algorithms - they proudly stated when I applied that 90% of their employees come from an Ivy league background. Here's who I think should start a startup: - People with the back…

FWIW Michael wasn't at Twitch. He was at Justin.tv, our precursor. By the time you applied, if you applied to Twitch, you were 6 years post-founding and Michael had left. I do believe you were asked graph traversal algorithms in the interview. I might have asked the question myself, though by the time we had pivoted to Twitch we had mostly stopped asking those questions. It was very early on and we were still pretty…

You know, after checking wayback, I absolutely conflated Twitch's "about us" site with an edtech startup that I had interviewed with at the same time. My most sincere apologies!

Congratulations on your success :)

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#180

Post by taurath »

mwseibel wrote: post #101
taurath wrote: post #77

I do find it rather hilarious that he dropped interest in yale for being too academic, but during my (failed) interview as a web developer at Twitch about 5 years ago, the questioning had to do with only academic subjects like graph traversal algorithms - they proudly stated when I applied that 90% of their employees come from an Ivy league background. Here's who I think should start a startup: - People with the back…

Sorry you didn't have a better interview experience at Twitch. Also, 90% of our employees didn't come from Ivy League backgrounds. Maybe there was a miscommunication there.

As said above, there absolutely was as I had conflated an edtech startup that I had interviewed with in the exact same timeframe. I verified on wayback!
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