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I Don't Want to Be a Founder

carolchen.me

101–110 of 245 posts

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#101
It's refreshing to see somebody stop and evaluate what they actually want, rather than just doing what they think they people like themselves should do.

Places like HN tend to come with the expectation that you should be building a company rather than working for one. That's a "thing you need to signal" if you want to be here. But watching discussions here, it's clear to me that most people just don't want to be entrepreneurs. And it's also clear that many of those people don't realize it.

Pull up a discussion thread on an article about bootrapping a little SaaS company. You'll find all these people coming out of the woodwork to explain how nobody could possibly build a software business today, listing three or four reasons that those of us who have built SaaS stuff never even considered, never ran into, or addressed on the day it came up. It doesn't really matter what the reasons are. The important part is that Building A Software Company Is Impossible So Nobody (Inclucing Me) Should Try (Though Note That I've Correctly Signalled That I Would, Were It Possible).

You'll get whole threads of people talking themselves out of trying, and congratulating themselves on not believing anything the author said because clearly his success was some fluke combination of luck and influence that could never be duplicated by anybody else.

Meanwhile, people who actually are interested in building a business will nod along to some bits of good advice, maybe comment about some of the less good bits, then get back to building something.

I wish it was more acceptable here to simply not want to build a business.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#103
It is definitely hard and stressful, but when you have your own company, it is up to you to decide how you want to run the company.

You don't have to have co-founders, you don't have to take VC money. You don't have to do anything period.

It is your company, you run it and if somebody else wants to run it, they can either fire you if they have means to do it or buy you out.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#104
post #103

It is definitely hard and stressful, but when you have your own company, it is up to you to decide how you want to run the company. You don't have to have co-founders, you don't have to take VC money. You don't have to do anything period. It is your company, you run it and if somebody else wants to run it, they can either fire you if they have means to do it or buy you out.

This is technically correct, and running a lifestyle business can suit some people.

But running a business is stressful because at the very least you have to deal with taxes, accounts, cashflow and sales that are more complex than being an employee. If you take on even a single employee it's another level of complexity on top, and you have to make payroll every month without fail.

For me at least it was better to do it for a few years with an exit in sight (in my case it went out of business, oh well!) rather than knowing that the stress of finding payroll every month would go on and on forever. And that means going for growth or bust, having a co-founder and all that.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#105

I remember as I was starting my company, I reached out to a founder of a company you've likely heard of for advice. We grabbed drinks, and he practically begged me to not start a company, for my own sake. I thought he was a dick. But he wasn't wrong. Write down a list of why you want to start a company. I bet the list involves things like "building something nobody else has," "getting to program and design and do a b…

Yeah, that's how I've always expected the VC-Backed-Startup world to work. It's fascinating to me to watch people going into that, expecting it to work out for them.

It's like watching somebody take up smoking. You can watch the history of people doing this activity as far back as you like, and just hardly ever come up with an outcome that seems to make your life genuinely better. But with lots of examples of it making your life worse.

That's not to say I'm against starting a Business though. I've been into bootstrapping SaaS products for the last dozen-odd years, and that absolutely has made my life better in lots of ways, including those on your list of Reasons To Start A Company.

The big one for me is Free Time. If you stay small, things work out really nicely. Every dollar past breakeven adds to your personal salary. No dividing by 2 or 3 or 10, so a little $10k MRR niche is all you need to be set for life. That's the kind of niche that can be serviced with a few hours of support mails a week (once the thing is built, of course), which means a lot more freedom to go do whatever else you want.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#106
I like the article but I honestly have never even stopped to think "should I create a startup?"... is that a common thing?

Maybe it's because I'm still young or because I've never actually been in huge financial distress (which I realise is a privilege) but I don't have the desire to make a lot of money or sell my dream idea/company. All I want is to make enough to cover my living costs and in my spare time work on side projects, code or tinker around. You know, do things that are actually fun to do and allow me to learn new stuff. If I have an idea i'm very passionate about I'd like to just share it with others because they might find it interesting, not turn it into financial profit for me.

Why is it that it's almost a societal expectation that you must always push to level up financially and professionally? In all honesty, I haven't even used my salary for more than rent and food in the last few months because there is simply nothing new that I really need... I haven't had to buy new clothes in at least three years but if I had to I could also do that cheaply at a second hand store; that's just one example. As for my hobbies, even on very dated hardware one can pretty much work on whatever the heart desires and learn, the only thing that is needed is an internet connection.

Why is there always a desire not just to make the money invested back but to make a huge profit? I think in this field we have pretty good wages, now can't we focus on more pressing issues that concern us and future generations?

I don't get it in general... I'm satisfied with what little I have, I don't need anything else because I can already do all the activities that make me happy.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#107
I don't even want to work, but unfortunately food and shelter cost money.

It's all a trade-off. Don't be a founder, but then you have to put up with crazy company politics, feeling of meaninglessness, having a boss, and so on.

Personally I don't think anybody is entitled to a job, though. Hence my "I don't even want to work" statement. People have to do something to survive, that is just reality.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#108
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it's all Germany based. Don't go the UG way, just found a GmbH. Please note it is possible to found it with 12500€ and have to provide the other half of the 25k€ later. My first company was without the GmbH protection and benefits. It was ok but I would not do or suggest it to anyone. Hell of a pain to migrate to a GmbH later.

I‘m about to found a UG in the next few days, so I‘m curious why you say that I should found a GmbH rather than a UG.

I heard, that transition from UG to GmbH might be associated with additional costs. Also some older folks don’t like UG in general, because it is “immature” company status for them. Personally I don’t like (haftungsbeschränkt) at the end. It’s longer than actual company’s name and just does not sound good.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#109

Could someone please explain to me what the value in this article is? It's written by a 18 year old who has never started a company So, as someone who has started multiple companies and currently running a profitable albeit small startup, what insights should I get from this article?

Just because an article exists, doesn't mean you're in the target audience for it.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#110

I’m a former VC-backed founder and I liked the post, but this part made me cringe: > To be ambitious often means things like wanting to do a Ph.D, become a medical doctor or an astronaut. Why should it be considered ambitious to do a PhD or become a medical doctor. Those are just slogs that most people can get through if they stick it out... Something is very wrong with our cultural preconceptions around ambition. It…

> Why should it be considered ambitious to do a PhD or become a medical doctor.

At least it seems more ambitious to me than writing that note taking app or making people click ads.

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