We need a middle class for startups
neilthanedar.com
We need a middle class for startups
1–10 of 320 posts
Re: We need a middle class for startups
#2I feel like this is just trying to rebrand “lifestyle businesses” or small businesses in general. Where I grew up it wasn’t uncommon for people to have businesses that did a few million in sales and the whole family worked at. While not as sexy as getting angel investment, it sustained a quality of life that met their needs. In order to run a successful business you don’t NEED mass profits or VC dollars.
Re: We need a middle class for startups
#3Am I the only one not interested in taking advice from someone who has largely been massively successful? I always feel like these are the people who generally have nothing of real value to say, they just think they do because of their bias from their success.
Re: We need a middle class for startups
#4I feel like this is just trying to rebrand “lifestyle businesses” or small businesses in general. Where I grew up it wasn’t uncommon for people to have businesses that did a few million in sales and the whole family worked at. While not as sexy as getting angel investment, it sustained a quality of life that met their needs. In order to run a successful business you don’t NEED mass profits or VC dollars.
Indeed, the majority of businesses don’t have Angel or VC funding. The majority are built on sweat equity.
Re: We need a middle class for startups
#5We need a startup for the middle class
Re: We need a middle class for startups
#6My sense is that in general, and especially in software, the world is becoming more of a winner take all place. This is not a good thing.
Re: We need a middle class for startups
#7Re: We need a middle class for startups
#8I feel like this is just trying to rebrand “lifestyle businesses” or small businesses in general. Where I grew up it wasn’t uncommon for people to have businesses that did a few million in sales and the whole family worked at. While not as sexy as getting angel investment, it sustained a quality of life that met their needs. In order to run a successful business you don’t NEED mass profits or VC dollars.
Local banks can provide the capital, often collateralized by your house. Also small business loans from the government and accelerator awards can provide 6 figure amounts. I know some "generic" business people who are fairly wealthy and they own things like food franchises and apartment complexes.
There are many paths to becoming rich that don't involve VCs and billion dollar exits. 99% of entrepreneurs don't talk to or know anything about the VC system. But if you are in tech and want to hire the best possible team to create something new, you need a lot of capital because those people are super expensive labor. And VCs don't want to give you $XX millions of dollars if the potential return is 2x. So that's the system we have in tech.
Re: We need a middle class for startups
#9I feel like this is just trying to rebrand “lifestyle businesses” or small businesses in general. Where I grew up it wasn’t uncommon for people to have businesses that did a few million in sales and the whole family worked at. While not as sexy as getting angel investment, it sustained a quality of life that met their needs. In order to run a successful business you don’t NEED mass profits or VC dollars.
Also there was a time when "lifestyle business" was getting shade as if it an inferior product for inferior people. I think that was probably just VC shade being thrown at it because they couldn't do anything with the kind of business. That and platforms probably ate away at their core offerings...
Re: We need a middle class for startups
#10No post body was provided.