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Why Should I Start a Startup?

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#261

Post by falcolas »

keerthiko wrote: post #169
falcolas wrote: post #18

So, does "personal responsibility for [...] failure" really apply when there is a 90% failure rate? Seems like short of failing to execute, it's more a game of chance than something you can influence. That is, it's seems like its a lot like video poker: you can cause yourself to lose, but you can't make yourself win. I would also think that getting into an industry with such a high failure rate would be terrible for…

Re: A high failure rate, it doesn't necessarily mean game of chance, it could mean a challenging game. I'd compare it more to darts: If 90% of dart throws miss the bullseye it could mean various things: * As you suggest, a game of chance with poor odds, ie 100% of people have roughly the same distribution of shots, landing only ~10% on the bullseye * Only 10% of people have the right confluence of skill, experience a…

Your last point is exactly the same as mine, just with different numbers. It still comes down to a gamble - the chance of you succeeding is out of your control, only the chance of you failing is in your control. Hence the analogy to video poker.

Just like gambling, the lucky ones will hit the jackpot early and crow how it's easily possible if you put in the right effort and time (just like they did). The unlucky ones will spend time and money trying to hit that jackpot.

If we step through the numbers, and assume a median of 4 years per real attempt with a 25% success rate:

First round of ten 22 year old, equally skilled and driven entrepreneurs, two succeed. The remaining eight 26 year olds are failures, but try again.

Four years later, two more will succeed, the remaining six are now 30, with two major failures under their belts. But they're driven, and try again.

Now at 34, another two succeed, and the remaining four are trying to drive up the will to let one more of them succeed.

Twelve years, six winners, four losers.

The median entrepreneur will have to spend 12 years - 3 attempts - of their lives to reach success. And that's the median, there will be some (somewhere around 2%) who could never reach success in their own lifespan, regardless of how hard they try, through no fault of their own.

I get the appeal though, just like I get the appeal of gambling. If you do win, you have a chance to win big. But there's a downside too. And that downside is the opportunity cost of all that time, energy and money spent trying to hit it big.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#262

Post by agentultra »

mseebach wrote: post #238
Analemma_ wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So if you go to work for a startup, you should demand substantially more money than with an established company. The problem is that most startups can't match, much less beat, established companies on salary, and they'll just turn you down. It's not even malice or greed on their part, it's just that they have a finite runway and a few tens of thousands of dollars a year on a single person can mean the difference be…

There's more to it than the small chance of winning the equity lottery. Working for a startup confers a number of non-monetary benefits that mega-corps don't. If you pay a startup-salary and then stick people in a cubicle and have them write TPS reports and deal with petty politics (ie: mega-corp conditions), people won't work for you. The feeling of working for a company that will make a dent in the world, so to spe…

The odds of "making a dent in the world" are pathetically, abysmally, absurdly small. You cannot plan for that. It just happens to some people and that's it.

If by, so to speak, you mean that some dents are bigger than others -- sure... contributing to a small startup that makes some people a decent amount of money and the rest practically nothing... sounds great. Turns out the bigger the exit the less the rest of the people make and the more a small group of people do. Of all the companies big and small that are started around the globe each day, how many have "made a dent in the world?"

It may as well be zero.

If you cannot be motivated internally you're not going to find it very satisfying to continue taking risks working for (or starting) startups. When the first one fails, and the next few, and you never end up making that dent... you're going to be very disappointed.

You can use that same internal motivation at a big-corp as you can working for a start up. Or anywhere else in life.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#263

Post by agogolev »

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…

Thanks for your replay. What kind of art do you do and can I look at it somewhere online?

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#264

Post by QuantumGravy »

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.

I find this unnecessarily aggressive and dismissive of people's (willfully chosen) social responsibilities. Yes, "the wife" is a convenient excuse for many things, including why you can't go out drinking tonight, even though you're really just tired from work and don't want to admit it. But presumably, if you're a decent person who has chosen to marry in this day and age, you take that choice seriously and choose your risks carefully.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#265

Post by eriktrautman »

A lot of replies are focusing on the outcomes implied by the OP's checklist -- if you answer "yes" on all, you'll be more likely to succeed financially. As a founder, I think it's far more important to focus on the journey aspects of it. Meaning, if you check the boxes, just maybe you have the mindset that will make you happiest when you're in the midst of all that hustling and struggling in the game. That mindset is what keeps you in it... if you're reward-focused, then you're going to burn out and lose direction.

So let's reframe the discussion from "do you have what it takes to be successful in a startup?" to "do you have what it takes to love the sufferfest grind of each day along the way so the outcome is just a nice reward at the end?"

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#266

Post by xiaoma »

throw4141 wrote: post #97

I've tried to start a startup, 2 times. I failed both times. And now I have 0 money left, the family that cannot help me, I don't have a job and can't find one and thankfully I have some friends that are giving me a place to sleep. Should I start another startup? I wish. Will I do it? I don't know how. I wish I had a magic idea and some people to invest in it, but not living in the Valley and not having a clue on how…

I'd get a job and go the more conservative "sidehustle" bootstrapping route of making a site or YouTube channel and then selling something for money. Stay focused on your job and don't quit until a sidehustle has momentum.

If you have no idea what to sell then just teach everything you know (about one topic), try to make something useful for people and make it in public (e.g sharing your progress on your blog or YT channel). Worst case scenario, you'll have a job, be saving money and build a small audience / reservoir of credibility.

Also maybe start hanging out on Indie Hackers instead of here.

Edit: as the sibling commenter said, get your life in order. That's number one. Until you find a job and can cover your rent, don't even spend time on news aggregators. I wouldn't worry too much about timing to be a founder. Everyone feels like they're too late and they've missed all the opportunities but there's always a next big thing. Keep your spirits up!

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#267

Post by mindcrime »

mindcrime wrote: post #167
polpenn wrote: post #166

Okay! Let's do it! I want to start a start-up. What do I do?

Read The Four Steps to the Ephiphany by Steve Blank, and The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki for starters...

"Epiphany". Grrr... I hate that you can only edit HN posts for a short period of time. :-(

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#268

Post by true_religion »

jaypaulynice wrote: post #221
true_religion wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whilst anything is possible, it ought to be much easier to gamble on staying married than gamble on a fickle market of consumers liking a product that you haven't built and is in no way similar to anything else.

This is not true for even the best entrepreneurs of our times...many are divorced multiple times so gambling on staying married is a bigger risk. Elon Musk and Sergey Brin are just a couple examples. Your spouse can dump you at any second no matter how secure you think your relationship is.

That's an example of entrepreneurship being hard on your relationship.

So if you go into a startup, you might end up with both a failed business and a divorce.

It's only tenacity, talent, and good timing that lead to Musk and Brin having the good luck to be divorced.... but successful.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#269

Post by cryoshon »

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…

a better term than 2X is "blessed but cursed"

sugarcoating learning disabilities / other life-ruining disabilities is a trick that people use when they can't confront the excessively negative reality: most geniuses with LD die in obscurity after being outrageously frustrated with life. once in a great while, we learn about them long after they're dead and appreciate their works. but usually not.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#270

Post by cryoshon »

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…

>It took a lot of self-discovery to see myself not as an entrepreneur, but as an artist, and it's frustrating, because it sure took me a while to admit it

i'm in the midst of this realization as well, not exactly as an artist though. it's shitty-- artists/etc don't get paid.

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