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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?
I feel conned.
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.
Is software startup by solo founders still viable anymore? Today the age of apps/SaaS seems ending. It is oversaturated, and the low hanging (low technical complexity) fruits are already taken left and right.
* Yes, software startups by solo founders are very much still viable.
* No, the age of apps/SaaS is not ending
* It is not oversaturated either. There are ALWAYS new ideas to build, new products in demand, and new ways to make money.
* It always seems like the low-hanging fruits have been "taken", because you've observed them being successful (it's a reductive argument). They probably weren't low-hanging when they were originally built - just in retrospect. Similarly, some of the app/SaaS ideas being built by solo founders right now may seem low-hanging in a few years.
The crispest example someone once gave me for why the world never actually runs out of things to build (easy or otherwise) was:
* New technical innovation A emerges (it can be anything - a new sensor on a phone, a new form factor, a new feature in software, a new API, etc.)
* Product B emerges that cleverly uses innovation A.
* Product C emerges that competes with Product B
* Service D emerges that helps compare Products B & C
Repeat ad infinitum...
Unless you believe we've reached the end of the first step (no new technical innovations!), then we haven't even come close to running out of things to build.
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…
The attitude is essentially that of "Find What You Love and Let it Destroy You" quixotic work-centric nihilism that seems both understandable yet ridiculous. For folks that ascribe this worldview though, I do expect them to do fairly well in whatever they do... and to be miserable to be someone unfortunate enough to love them.
Is software startup by solo founders still viable anymore? Today the age of apps/SaaS seems ending. It is oversaturated, and the low hanging (low technical complexity) fruits are already taken left and right.
“You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve”
Sometimes you see or believe something that others simply can't or don't, and you want to do something about it. Trying to find a (usually narrowly-defined) job that lets you work on these things can be very hard because there usually has to be someone looking for solutions to these hard-to-see problems, and you sacrifice a bunch (more) of your autonomy in the process.
Founding a startup is a great solution to this problem; convince some capital that you have deep conviction and competence to make a material change in the world and put in your own elbow grease to prove it. If you are willing to work hard you don't need very much money to amplify the impact of your own decisions and efforts and the snowball grows, attracting more resources along its path.
It's still really hard to do, but founding a startup remains one of the best ways to prove out a hypothesis in the real world and achieve actual change, while still allowing for a decent income even in the event of failure. It is worth it if the mission is compelling.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For me it is absolutely no choice to be employed or working in larger companies. I want my own freedom :) Living the dream, what are/were a few of them? I still have too much psychological/mental stuff from my Fintech startup I left in 2018 to seriously consider doing it again, even though this pandemic put the Industry I focused on as an 'essential' Industry despite denying them access to financial services and pa…
What are some viable startup ideas in fin tech? Insurance by app? Stock trading for free?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the record - I think the issues identified here are isolated to founders of venture backed businesses that are shooting for the moon.
So, could one avoid them by self-funding and growing very slowly?
I generally encourage interested people to start their own companies. But I advise against taking VC except for a few use cases that make bootstrapping unrealistic.
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 s…
VCs are really playing a status game, and the promise is that you too can become a high status player with a public profile and significant economic leverage. It's a completely traditional patronage relationship, based on the promise that if you win a round of the game, they will help you level up.
Ideally you both exit with a unicorn level IPO. That's a real win - for you, but also for them.
So this is not primarily about being able to afford to pay the bills. Or even about "changing the world" by providing a new kind of service. It's more like an economic and political sport.
A win leaves you with plenty of cash, but it also gets you entry to The Network, and eventually you may even graduate to coach yourself.
This is why VCs aren't interested in growing stable, unexciting, but productive businesses. Those are low-status beta plays, and no one ever became a thought leader by funding a small beer Wordpress consultancy - not even one that has been around for more than a decade, is comfortably profitable, and the business owners can afford to retire at 40.
The real stakes aren't money - although that's certainly a factor - but Network profile and reputation.
As a bootstrapper you can choose to play this game, or you can choose to ignore it. And ignoring it is perfectly legitimate. There's a huge amount of stress involved in going full SV, failure is far more likely than success, success is far more likely if you're already in or around The Network, and not everyone cares enough about the benefits to consider it a worthwhile tradeoff.
Anyone who does choose to play it should be aware of what they're getting into, and stories like OP's can do a lot to make the tradeoffs clearer.