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Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

techcrunch.com

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Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#11

Post by k33n »

staunch wrote: post #6
gnaritas wrote: post #4

Earlier 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.

What are you basing your comment on other than utopian world views?

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#12

Post by tiles »

nhangen wrote: post #8

I 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 init…

That doesn't seem inconsistent. That's why he was saying if he started Facebook today, presumably after having some Facebook-like success. The caveat is this is not advice that should be taken by inexperienced entrepreneurs.

The important takeaway is that he would be willing to trade a culture of connections for a place where there's less drive for big cash-outs (like Boston or New York, presumably) from entrepreneurship. This gels with his particular philosophy that entrepreneurship should not be about building companies, but building products.

In practice there is a spectrum and neither approach is less valid than the other.

EDIT: Agreed. Though even he called that headline being on TechCrunch, when he tried to couch his reasoning more carefully than just "I would've started in Boston".

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#13

Post by jacquesm »

mrleinad wrote: post #3

His 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…

Let me help you out here to end your confusion as to who 'the girl' is:

http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jl

Nice way to make someone smile though, even if it was not intentional.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#14

Post by buss »

nhangen wrote: post #8

I 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 init…

I don't think it was hypocritical at all, but I think Zuck didn't clearly explain what he was trying to say.

His point was that the valley was essential for when facebook was starting because he didn't know anything and could have only learned the necessary things and met the right people in the valley. Because he has learned so much, he was saying that if he started over, knowing what he knows now, then it wouldn't matter where he started because he knows what to do right.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#15

Post by timsally »

jrockway wrote: post #5

One 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 imagine you're being downvoted by people who don't know what winter in Chicago is like. ^^

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#16

Post by whackedspinach »

timsally wrote: post #15
jrockway wrote: post #5

One 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 imagine you're being downvoted by people who don't know what winter in Chicago is like. ^^

Hear, hear. The number one reason to move from Illinois to the Valley: ability to drive your car and not be snowed in on Lake Shore Drive.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#17

Post by dmix »

nhangen wrote: post #7
mrleinad wrote: post #3

His 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.

She also wrote Founders at Work, probably the best collection of interviews with tech founders around. We're going to need a little better critique than she "was not so good at it" to discredit her as an interviewer.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#18

Post by pingswept »

nhangen wrote: post #7
mrleinad wrote: post #3

His 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.

Also, typically "girl," like "boy," refers to a child. Ms. Livingston is obviously an adult, so to many people the term "girl" comes across as belittling.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#19

Post by dmix »

Just like most sound bites this one needs context to be accurate. But I'm sure it will continue to make headlines elsewhere.

He said that the valley was very helpful for him early on as a fresh entrepreneur. He also said he could probably have done it in New York as well.

Also the headline mixes present and past tense, "If I were starting a company now" and "I would have". This doesn't mean in retrospect he would have kept Facebook in boston back in 2005 or whenever he moved to the valley. It means right now.

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