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I Don't Want to Be a Founder

carolchen.me

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Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#141

Post by baxtr »

gkoberger wrote: post #21

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…

">Oh, and the rejection. The non stop rejection. Every single day, minute, hour. Investors, customers, employees, potential employees. It's not personal, but it sure feels personal. Even when things are going great, there's tons of little micro-rejections, non-stop. I wish someone told me that."

That was definitely the case with my first startup when I was younger. In my second business that I started 10 years later, I couldn't care less. Most of the time such a feedback is given by people who aren't my target audience and who thus don't have the pain that people I target have. If your target audience rejects you, you have a big big problem.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#142

Post by baxtr »

Mave83 wrote: post #39

I successful founded startups since 20 years, starting in the age of 16. In none of them, I founded together with partners that I realy trusted like I trust my wife. However we worked together on a professional level and figured it out everytime. Why could we do that? because in the end it is a work for roughly 5y and if you stop even thinking about working 24x7x365 you have enough free time for recreational activiti…

Is there any way I can contact you? :D

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#143

Post by mindcrime »

gkoberger wrote: post #21

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…

Oh, and the rejection. The non stop rejection. Every single day, hour, minute. Investors, customers, employees, potential employees. It's not personal, but it sure feels personal. Even when things are going great, there's tons of little micro-rejections, non-stop. I wish someone told me that.

Yep. That's been one of the toughest parts of the whole process to me. Probably the toughest. That and the fact that nobody else (unless they've been through the same process) can really understand what you're dealing with. It results, for me, in a very lonely feeling at times.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#144

Post by bjornsing »

filleduchaos wrote: post #100
bjornsing wrote: post #85

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…

Of course, when one actually takes that entire part in context it's clear what the author means: > To be ambitious often means things like wanting to do a Ph.D, become a medical doctor or an astronaut. On that scale, it's not really about being better at something you're doing (though it partially is), but joining a new game where it's supposedly harder .

Is it? Do people think it’s harder to do a PhD or get through medical school than it is to succeed with a VC-backed startup...?

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#145

Post by bjornsing »

jackpirate wrote: post #88
bjornsing wrote: post #85

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…

Those are just slogs that most people can get through if they stick it out... Most adults in the US do not even have a college degree. For their children, aspiring to be a doctor would be incredibly ambitious and an amazing accomplishment. Acknowledging that these high-prestige professions are very difficult for certain members of society to get into does not make talking about your ambitions "taboo", and I frankly f…

Yea, sorry, I’m in Sweden so may have a different perspective. But you must realize that if a child says “I’m going to start a successful VC-backed company” then that’s a lot more ambitious than saying “I’m gonna go to medical school”, right? (At least if we by more ambitious mean “has a lower probability of success”.)

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#146

Post by dasil003 »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #83
imprettycool wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't have to be stressful or full-commitment. I'm cool with $50k ARR.

I'm not even sure revenue is that good of a signal of the work put in. Didn't the Basecamp guys start off on just 10 hours a week inbetween their day job.

By day job do you mean running 37signals the new media design firm at the dawn of the web?

I wouldn’t really isolate the “day job” part here, it was sort of the quintessential dogfood SaaS.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#148

Post by gfodor »

irjustin wrote: post #4

Dave McClure had a pretty aggressive talk about why not to do a startup[0] back in 2012 and it resonates with what's written here. Startups are hard and we love to parade those who made it, struck it rich, but the reality is the vast majority don't. It also requires a skillset/discipline/constitution that is very different than what most people want to do. In the very large group who don't make it, lies burnt relatio…

The “you win big or fail” mental model is totally wrong. If you fail, dust yourself off and try again. Doesn’t mean you have to do it immediately. Failure definitely sucks. But people who fail once at something they really want to achieve and then write it off as impossible never achieve anything.

Also the high stakes fat stacks VC hyper growth approach is but one way to create a business.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#149

Post by mbesto »

gkoberger wrote: post #21

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…

For the record - I think the issues identified here are isolated to founders of venture backed businesses that are shooting for the moon.

Re: I Don't Want to Be a Founder

#150

Post by czbond »

jackpirate wrote: post #88
bjornsing wrote: post #85

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…

Those are just slogs that most people can get through if they stick it out... Most adults in the US do not even have a college degree. For their children, aspiring to be a doctor would be incredibly ambitious and an amazing accomplishment. Acknowledging that these high-prestige professions are very difficult for certain members of society to get into does not make talking about your ambitions "taboo", and I frankly f…

OP is simply meaning the steps are laid out for those disciplines - and one must follow the path. It just takes the time and effort and one can progress there. Whereas entrepreneurship is finding the path, along with much more - and failure is still a high chance.
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