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Why Should I Start a Startup?

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#191

Post by boomzilla »

akg_67 wrote: post #143
nostrademons wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few examples of startup founders who were potentially homeless if it failed (AirBnB is the obvious one...they started it because they were literally a month away from being homeless), but you're right, this is the exception rather than the rule. I think what's frequently overlooked in the "how do I get the resources to found a startup without risking everything?" is that you don't do it in one shot . If y…

> AirBnB is the obvious one...they started it because they were literally a month away from being homeless How much of this statement is real and how much is just a marketing narrative put together afterward to make project look better or humanize? I see this over and over in every segment. I laugh every time I read that an investment/asset manager claims to had a paper route or lemonade stand and.or bought 1 stock a…

The AirBnB story about `literally a month from being homeless` is total BS. Both Chesky and Gebbia worked for a few years before starting the company and the other guy went to Harvard.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#192

Post by jorblumesea »

Animats wrote: post #32
agentultra wrote: post #7

> 1. The vast majority of startups are not successful This alone is why 90% of people will not choose to work at a startup. You will work long hours, for crap pay, and you'll be waiting in line if there is an exit. The odds of there being an exit worth anything to anyone other than a founder are small enough to not even worth considering. If you are a founder you're gambling on your chances. There are ways to mitigat…

The odds of there being an exit worth anything to anyone other than a founder are small enough to not even worth considering. So if you go to work for a startup, you should demand substantially more money than with an established company. It didn't used to be that way. It used to be that the first dozen or so employees of a successful startup did very well, and the first hundred or so did OK.

Yeah that's not gonna happen. Startups are lots of work for low pay, with the lottery ticket that you might be the 1% who makes it out.

You ask for a megacorp salary and you'll be laughed out the door.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#193

Post by jorblumesea »

scottLobster wrote: post #95
jaypaulynice wrote: post #76

I like this post. I wish I really started a startup in college or right after. A regular corporate job turns you into a zombie and you become out of touch with reality especially if you're well paid and well fed. A lot of people are unprepared for the hard life. If anything, you'll learn more about life in 6 months than you will in decades. It's not just the technical stuff. You'll learn who your real friends are. Be…

As a counterpoint: My spouse's ongoing education is currently dependent on my regular income. Once she graduates it'll effectively double our collective income and hopefully give her her first good career. I'm not sure how I could sell gambling all of that on a 90% chance of failure even if I wanted to. Sounds like the act of a gambling addict. Also, if you need to gamble your family's livelihood to find out if your…

I had a weird realization that startups might be for people who came from stable households that crave a romantic version of drama and hardship.

Anyone who grew up lower/lower middle class has absolutely no romanticism about being overworked and underfed.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#194

Post by _uoi8 »

mwseibel wrote: post #39
nathan-wailes wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, if you're able to answer it: Does YC now collect, or has it ever collected, (anonymized?) data/survey-responses from founders (YC alums or not) on their original motivations for starting the company, and attempt(ed) to correlate that with outcomes? If so, are you willing/able to reveal any of the things YC learned? If YC hasn't attempted to do this: why not?

No but we should - we are actually building a lot more data collection in the next year

please do :) P.S. I'd love to see a Q re. motivation and perseverance in the YC application form.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#195

Post by King-Aaron »

Mz wrote: post #62

He sounds twice exceptional -- gifted, but with some sort of learning disability or handicap of some sort. Twice exceptional people often appear to be "average" but find an "average" or normal life enormously frustrating. Because of having some sort of handicap, it can take a lot to get them going. Once they get going, they often outperform others. Life is vastly better for them when they can create their own niche b…

Example cases: Richard Branson, John Chambers (Cisco), Ingvar Kamprad (Ikea), Henry Ford (GM or something), Bill Hewlett (HP co-founder)... All these guys were dyslexic and achieved fairly exceptional things.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#197

Post by andy_ppp »

King-Aaron wrote: post #195
Mz wrote: post #62

He sounds twice exceptional -- gifted, but with some sort of learning disability or handicap of some sort. Twice exceptional people often appear to be "average" but find an "average" or normal life enormously frustrating. Because of having some sort of handicap, it can take a lot to get them going. Once they get going, they often outperform others. Life is vastly better for them when they can create their own niche b…

Example cases: Richard Branson, John Chambers (Cisco), Ingvar Kamprad (Ikea), Henry Ford (GM or something), Bill Hewlett (HP co-founder)... All these guys were dyslexic and achieved fairly exceptional things.

This isn't intended as snarky but after listening to the "You Are No So Smart" podcast [1] for a few months now, seeing these sort of examples my mind immediately goes to Confirmation Bias [2] and that use of inductive reasoning like this cannot be trusted.

[1] https://youarenotsosmart.com/podcast/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#198

Post by ericd »

mosselman wrote: post #85
ericd wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC doesn't capture "the vast profits", they take ballpark 6%. That leaves the founders with the vast majority of the windfall, depending on how much outside money you need to make your idea work.

6% of a few billion is still a vast profit compared to their relative effort. It is not a bad thing either. Why shouldn't they make money? Profit is not a dirty word. Still @CryptoFascist makes a valid observation in stating that YC is probably not an impartial entity when writing about whether you should or should not start a start-up, preferably for them.

It wouldn't make sense financially or otherwise for them to try to trick people who aren't well suited to doing startups into doing one, which is what the parent seems to be implying.

Also, the parent says that it's a terrible financial deal for most founders to do a YC startup, which is laughably wrong. If you succeed, there are few better ways to become very wealthy. If you fail, the most common failure mode I've seen is that the team gets a much better than average signing bonus at one of the big tech companies. We've all heard horror stories about people going deep into personal credit card debt to keep their startup afloat, but that doesn't seem to be representative for YC founders.

And whether you end up cashing out for gigabucks or getting acquihired for vested equity megabucks, while you're running it, if you do it well, you get to work the way you like on problems of your choosing with people you like rather than letting your soul die slowly doing pointless tasks and sitting in pointless meetings at a big corporation. People should really not forget that part while they're harping on startup salaries. Startups can be a lot of fun, and you really can have an impact. Unless you join a pointless startup that loves pointless meetings, those exist too. But if you're the founder, you're free to try to run a low-bullshit company.

Anyway, that's all to say that you're trying to find the silver lining of a turd of a comment.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#199

Post by lgats »

King-Aaron wrote: post #195
Mz wrote: post #62

He sounds twice exceptional -- gifted, but with some sort of learning disability or handicap of some sort. Twice exceptional people often appear to be "average" but find an "average" or normal life enormously frustrating. Because of having some sort of handicap, it can take a lot to get them going. Once they get going, they often outperform others. Life is vastly better for them when they can create their own niche b…

Example cases: Richard Branson, John Chambers (Cisco), Ingvar Kamprad (Ikea), Henry Ford (GM or something), Bill Hewlett (HP co-founder)... All these guys were dyslexic and achieved fairly exceptional things.

I liked your joke.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#200

Post by King-Aaron »

andy_ppp wrote: post #197
King-Aaron wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Example cases: Richard Branson, John Chambers (Cisco), Ingvar Kamprad (Ikea), Henry Ford (GM or something), Bill Hewlett (HP co-founder)... All these guys were dyslexic and achieved fairly exceptional things.

This isn't intended as snarky but after listening to the "You Are No So Smart" podcast [1] for a few months now, seeing these sort of examples my mind immediately goes to Confirmation Bias [2] and that use of inductive reasoning like this cannot be trusted. [1] https://youarenotsosmart.com/podcast/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

I didn't see the comment as snarky :) I'd argue however that those examples were just examples of others succeeding even though they had a limiting factor, not evidence to say that a reduced learning capacity is going to guarantee success haha.
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