Earlier quoted context omitted.
The mean age for founders in the US is 39: http://blog.checkadvantage.com/2011/02/09/baby-boomers-job-m...
Not for the type of start-up we talk about on HN.
Why, is the risk somehow greater ?
Why you shouldn't start a startup
41–50 of 66 posts
Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup
#42Kind of a linkbait title since less than half of the presentation is caveats and the remainder is advice for starting a startup. Nevertheless I thought it was well done--definitely lays out the risks very nicely. One thing I'd like to hear more about are people who took "secure" jobs for a period of time out of college and then jumped ship for a startup once they had some money saved up. I feel like most people comin…
If you took on student loans (incredibly common), you have 6 months before the collectors come calling and survival then requires an additional $100-$1000 income per month. Failure to pay or having insubstantial means to pay can result in substantially larger amounts of interest to repay, substantially longer repayment periods or garnished wages. Since there's no way to escape repayment a debt-encumbered individual h…
I know how you feel man, almost the same situation (no kid yet). My wife is finishing her Masters, I figure once she's done with that and has a secure job, it might be time for me to try something. It's risky but right now we make it with one salary. We've talked about it and she currently says that since I helped her with her dream she can help with mine. I think it's a fair trade.
But I'd be stupid enough to go for it now. They can come after me for all I've got and get pretty much nothing. In the end if you don't make any income, they have nothing to garnish. Naive view of things for sure.
Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
The mean age for founders in the US is 39: http://blog.checkadvantage.com/2011/02/09/baby-boomers-job-m...
I think the mean age for YC founders is ~26 from what I gather.
That's because I don't think older entrepreneur usually would go for a YC like program. A lot of them have worked long enough to have savings to bootstrap and connections. At least that's my hypothesis.
Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup
#44"You're a visionary product guy? You'll spend your time chasing money, customers, users, employees, facing No's."
How true!
Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup
#45I think it is a good article, nowdays EVERYBODY is triying to go rich just like that, mostly because of"The social network" movie, we need to understand that this succes cases are rare BUT we need to learn from them, this guys made something different that the rest and place them on the top. Follow me on twitter: @storm_kid
Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup
#46Kind of a linkbait title since less than half of the presentation is caveats and the remainder is advice for starting a startup. Nevertheless I thought it was well done--definitely lays out the risks very nicely. One thing I'd like to hear more about are people who took "secure" jobs for a period of time out of college and then jumped ship for a startup once they had some money saved up. I feel like most people comin…
I have spent 8 years in a corporate job, paid off my house and car within this period, as well as saved enough that could sustain my simple lifestyle for the next 3-4 years. When i reached 30, i got married and quit within 1 month after my wedding.
As i look back, the only real tangible return i ever got back in these 8 years of is that I met my lovely wife.
Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you took on student loans (incredibly common), you have 6 months before the collectors come calling and survival then requires an additional $100-$1000 income per month. Failure to pay or having insubstantial means to pay can result in substantially larger amounts of interest to repay, substantially longer repayment periods or garnished wages. Since there's no way to escape repayment a debt-encumbered individual h…
I know how you feel man, almost the same situation (no kid yet). My wife is finishing her Masters, I figure once she's done with that and has a secure job, it might be time for me to try something. It's risky but right now we make it with one salary. We've talked about it and she currently says that since I helped her with her dream she can help with mine. I think it's a fair trade. But I'd be stupid enough to go for…
>In the end if you don't make any income, they have nothing to garnish.
True, but student debt can only be discharged in very limited circumstances and living under the thumb of a debt-collector for your entire life seems like one of the worst choices you could make.
Even with debt, our quality of life is higher than anyone else in our family has ever been, it's been a great enabler of upwards mobility. My wife came from near-poverty and I'm from a lower-middle class household, and we're now solidly in upper-middle class earnings and this is still a relatively low point of our careers. The debt is totally worth it, it's just an additional thing to manage and weights your life choices towards certain things.
Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup
#48Kind of a linkbait title since less than half of the presentation is caveats and the remainder is advice for starting a startup. Nevertheless I thought it was well done--definitely lays out the risks very nicely. One thing I'd like to hear more about are people who took "secure" jobs for a period of time out of college and then jumped ship for a startup once they had some money saved up. I feel like most people comin…
I did it. I took a "secure" job for two years after graduate school, then decided to jump into a startup as a first employee. The way I decided which company was that I built a script that would crawl the news for companies closing series A, and then chose from that pool (since those would be arguably less risky).
After 3 years as a startup employee (and learning everything about both technical and business side of things), I'm founding a company now.
Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup
#49Kind of a linkbait title since less than half of the presentation is caveats and the remainder is advice for starting a startup. Nevertheless I thought it was well done--definitely lays out the risks very nicely. One thing I'd like to hear more about are people who took "secure" jobs for a period of time out of college and then jumped ship for a startup once they had some money saved up. I feel like most people comin…
I have spent 8 years in a corporate job, paid off my house and car within this period, as well as saved enough that could sustain my simple lifestyle for the next 3-4 years. When i reached 30, i got married and quit within 1 month after my wedding. As i look back, the only real tangible return i ever got back in these 8 years of is that I met my lovely wife.
How is paying off your house and car, and saving enough to choose not to work for 3-4 years not a bunch of "tangible returns?"
(By the way, kudos on that level of self-discipline; I would be extremely happy to accomplish that much with 8 years of corporate salary.)
Re: Why you shouldn't start a startup
#50I think it is a good article, nowdays EVERYBODY is triying to go rich just like that, mostly because of"The social network" movie, we need to understand that this succes cases are rare BUT we need to learn from them, this guys made something different that the rest and place them on the top. Follow me on twitter: @storm_kid
What's wrong with trying to go rich like that, even if it is because of the movie?