The successful normally have rich or influential family ties (Gates, Bezos etc), government or intelligence investment or support (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Palantir, SpaceX), are there to help with money laundering (Bored Apes, FTX, RobinHood) or fraud (FTX, Theranos, WeWork).
What differentiates people who start and run startups that sell for m/b-illions?
11–16 of 16 posts
Re: What differentiates people who start and run startups that sell for m/b-illions?
#12The successful normally have rich or influential family ties (Gates, Bezos etc), government or intelligence investment or support (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Palantir, SpaceX), are there to help with money laundering (Bored Apes, FTX, RobinHood) or fraud (FTX, Theranos, WeWork).
The thing is, not every rich guy becomes anywhere close to Gates or Bezos. What did they do differently or what makes them different than other similarly rich peers?
For govt/intel investment, what did these guys do or what made them stand out to receive such investment?
See, privilege and luck may be factors but there has to be some differentiating factors for these people. WeWork and Theranos founders are said to be extremely charismatic. How? What makes them become like that? Genes? Upbringing?
Re: What differentiates people who start and run startups that sell for m/b-illions?
#13It's just luck. Random chance.
Is it really? Luck to have a better IQ/genes/some other parameter than most other people?
Re: What differentiates people who start and run startups that sell for m/b-illions?
#14This is simply knowledge. If you have knowledge and intuition, you can earn a lot of money.
Most people on here on HN have a lot of technical knowledge and they do seem to do decently well, but millions?
Re: What differentiates people who start and run startups that sell for m/b-illions?
#15It’s pure luck, don’t believe anything else, not intelligence, nor commitment, nor top colleges, nor “my 10 morning routine/silly quote” or even your parents’ success, sure all or any of that might contribute to a degree, but the biggest factor is luck. Look at it as a 3D fast moving randomly sinusoidal waves in XYZ space, if your wave is happen to identically match the success-wave (and what is a success-wave for yo…
Luck seems too simplistic an answer. You still need to have the necessary qualities to be able to recognize when an opportunity comes your way.
Luck can't be the only factor to riches. There has to be more.
Re: What differentiates people who start and run startups that sell for m/b-illions?
#16It’s pure luck, don’t believe anything else, not intelligence, nor commitment, nor top colleges, nor “my 10 morning routine/silly quote” or even your parents’ success, sure all or any of that might contribute to a degree, but the biggest factor is luck. Look at it as a 3D fast moving randomly sinusoidal waves in XYZ space, if your wave is happen to identically match the success-wave (and what is a success-wave for yo…
Luck seems too simplistic an answer. You still need to have the necessary qualities to be able to recognize when an opportunity comes your way. Luck can't be the only factor to riches. There has to be more.
Luck isn’t the only factor, but it’s one of the only factors that is requisite. Hard work and competence help but aren’t required. Luck is always required.
For what it’s worth, luck isn’t rabbit’s feet and horseshoes. When folks talk about luck in the context of entrepreneurship, it’s the chaotic, complex, unmeasurable, unquantifiable, uncontrollable, and often imperceptible factors that can lead to wildly different outcomes for the same idea and quality of execution from two different individuals.
For example, you’re not the first to think “If we could empower doctors with AI, we could save billions and improve patient outcomes”. There are probably 10,000 or more people who have already pitched or are actively in the process of preparing VC pitches for what are essentially all just variations on the same idea. Luck is the fact that your former college roommate raised a series A from Sequoia last year and is willing to vouch for you to their contacts. And further, that those contacts feel like it’s the right time to expose themselves to this part of the market. And that you had no traffic on your way to the pitch, that your IBS didn’t act up mid pitch, and that this is the first day in a week that the VC you’re pitching to isn’t hung over. Luck is them deciding, before you ever step in the room, that as long as you don’t fuck up that they are feeling ready to fund exactly a medical AI venture, and you’re the first in line since they developed that resolve.
Luck is something that can be influenced, to a degree. It’s stochastic. You roll a d20 once and you’re probably not getting a nat 20. If you keep rolling though, one of those is likely going to pan out. Luck is also having the background to keep rolling though. It’s the difference between being able to take 3-months off work and spending all of your life savings because you’re a paramedic making $45k/year with a great idea and ambition, vs being comfortable taking 1-2 years off to perfect your pitch and build a compelling product because you used to work for Google and even if this doesn’t land you’re not going to have a hard time getting hired at Facebook for $100k/year more than you used to make. In this sense, luck is the difference between your Plan B potentially breaking you completely, or leaving you on a lower cloud among the 1%.