Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
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Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
#2It's probably the most damning and valid critique of The Valley.
How many Twitters/Facebooks/Dropboxes/Airbnbs don't exist because the founders sold them for $15M in 18 months?
Sometimes it's because the founders aren't really passionate enough about what they're working on.
Other times it's just financially insane to say no. A great example is Mint.com. How do you tell Aaron Patzer not to sell, when he's going to make $40M personally? That's more than he might have made in an IPO after many years.
Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
#3His Q&A at Startup School was not so good as the rest of the speakers that were invited. The girl that was making the questions was not so good at it either. There was no consistency about what he wanted to say. Many times he lost his own trail of thought. Maybe you need such an article to extract some meaning out of everything he talked.
[EDIT] Well, someone doesn't like that I speak up my mind. So I can't make an opinion about this now without being downvoted?
Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
#4It's probably the most damning and valid critique of The Valley. How many Twitters/Facebooks/Dropboxes/Airbnbs don't exist because the founders sold them for $15M in 18 months? Sometimes it's because the founders aren't really passionate enough about what they're working on. Other times it's just financially insane to say no. A great example is Mint.com. How do you tell Aaron Patzer not to sell, when he's going to ma…
> How many Twitters/Facebooks/Dropboxes/Airbnbs don't exist because the founders sold them for $15M in 18 months?
If the founders exited with the cash they were looking for, so what?
> How do you tell Aaron Patzer not to sell, when he's going to make $40M personally?
You don't, and why should you?
> That's more than he might have made in an IPO after years more work.
Who care about an IPO? If you can cash out before that, awesome!
Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
#5One reason to live in the Valley is the opportunity to exercise outdoors in shorts and a t-shirt 365 days a year. That's why I want to move out there, anyway.
Winter is highly overrated.
Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
#6It's probably the most damning and valid critique of The Valley. How many Twitters/Facebooks/Dropboxes/Airbnbs don't exist because the founders sold them for $15M in 18 months? Sometimes it's because the founders aren't really passionate enough about what they're working on. Other times it's just financially insane to say no. A great example is Mint.com. How do you tell Aaron Patzer not to sell, when he's going to ma…
> How many Twitters/Facebooks/Dropboxes/Airbnbs don't exist because the founders sold them for $15M in 18 months? If the founders exited with the cash they were looking for, so what? > How do you tell Aaron Patzer not to sell, when he's going to make $40M personally? You don't, and why should you? > That's more than he might have made in an IPO after years more work. Who care about an IPO? If you can cash out before…
The world is better off when companies like Dropbox exist as large transformational forces of technology progress. If they all get strangled in their crib's progress slows.
Imagine if Yahoo hadn't flubbed the acquisition of Google? We'd all be worse off.
Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
#7His Q&A at Startup School was not so good as the rest of the speakers that were invited. The girl that was making the questions was not so good at it either. There was no consistency about what he wanted to say. Many times he lost his own trail of thought. Maybe you need such an article to extract some meaning out of everything he talked. [EDIT] Well, someone doesn't like that I speak up my mind. So I can't make an o…
I'm guessing the reason you are being downvoted is because "the girl" is Jessica Livingston, a partner at YC, who has earned a lot of respect here on HN.
I agree that Zuck seemed unprepared and rambled, frequently forgetting what he was talking about, but that's not something the host can control.
Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
#8I saw the talk, and felt his point was hypocritical. He said that FB couldn't have made it outside of the valley, but that knowing what he knows now, it probably could were he starting it today.
In other words, he needed the valley when he was young and inexperienced, but it's not necessary if you have the experience and connections already.
[Edit: The reason I'm saying it's hypocritical is because his point was initially obfuscated, and if you took that statement at face value, you wouldn't get the whole point.]
Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How many Twitters/Facebooks/Dropboxes/Airbnbs don't exist because the founders sold them for $15M in 18 months? If the founders exited with the cash they were looking for, so what? > How do you tell Aaron Patzer not to sell, when he's going to make $40M personally? You don't, and why should you? > That's more than he might have made in an IPO after years more work. Who care about an IPO? If you can cash out before…
The world is better off when companies like Dropbox exist as large transformational forces of technology progress. If they all get strangled in their crib's progress slows. Imagine if Yahoo hadn't flubbed the acquisition of Google? We'd all be worse off.
> If they all get strangled in their cribs progress slows.
A founder exiting with millions isn't strangling anything. They aren't working to change the world, they're working to make enough money to not have to. Those who want to change the world, like Zuck, wouldn't take the buyout offer because money wasn't the goal. Those who take the cash would have taken it whenever it was offered and left regardless, better to do it early and it's just wrong to say the company was strangled.
> Imagine if Yahoo hadn't flubbed the acquisition of Google?
You don't know that. For all you know, the combined money of Yahoo and talents of Google could have resulted in something better than what we ended up with. No one knows either way.
Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston
#10One reason to live in the Valley is the opportunity to exercise outdoors in shorts and a t-shirt 365 days a year. That's why I want to move out there, anyway. Winter is highly overrated.
I would amend that with, "or ride a motorcycle".
That's half of why I moved out here. The fact that this place is a programmer's mecca and I've wanted to live here since I was a kid was the other half.