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The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

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Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#31

Post by EricDeb »

AdamFernandez wrote: post #25

I don't know if the author was trying to express this particular sentiment, but I am concerned by a general theme that I have noticed in articles I have been reading on HN lately. 1. We are in a bubble, because all these 'useless' startups are getting funding when they should not be (debatable on many levels). 2. Too many startups are focusing on areas that are over like 'Social'. 3. Some people just aren't good enou…

This is absolutely true. People are prone to think that if you start a company and it is "for the wrong reasons," three years later you will be bankrupt and want to kill yourself.

Likely, if you start a company for the wrong reasons, you will find out very quickly and will quit within a couple months. You will pursue more standard forms of employment and be FAR happier about it.

I say, if you want to start a company for whatever reason... do it!

Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#32

Post by RedwoodCity »

Even if a startup fails helpfully everyone involved learned some lessons. I know people who have been founders or have worked in startups that didn't succeed, in-spite of that have gone on to do a variety of interesting things.

Companies fail for all sorts of reasons that are often well beyond their control. Being part of such a team is hardly the kiss of death provided you can explain what you did and what you learned.

You lose 100% of the games you never play. Go into it with your eyes open that more than likely you won't be the next instagram, but you will develop many skills can be broadly applied outside of starting a company. With the right attitude it doesn't matter if you strike it rich, because frequently good ideas(supersonic air travel, concord ) lose and a lot of seemingly bad ideas have made people wealthy(pet rocks).

Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#33

Post by AVTizzle »

rhizome wrote: post #14
AVTizzle wrote: post #5

There's a subtle, rather meta feeling I can't shake when I read "cautionary" blog posts like these. It's the feeling that maybe the author isn't writing it for anyone else's benefit as much as their own. Like the author writes to reinforce that, unlike said "friend" who's making all these cautionary mistakes, they themselves are in it for all the right reasons. Every time the author makes a, "he" statement, you can j…

I think the word you're looking for is "patronizing," with the implied title actually being "Them (or You) too?"

Exactly. Good way to put it.

Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#34

Post by rainbow »

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #23
squarecat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really?? Doesn't "...And a few girlfriends slept alone in their beds, While visions of exits danced in their boyfriends’ heads..." operate on the same presumption that has resulted in a number of others getting their asses handed to them recently?

Can't we just be glad that we're no longer looked at as "dorky programmers that can't even get a mate" and just move on? Why kick the hornet's nest?

Because your 'we' in this case assumes your reader is male. Again.

Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#35

Post by lusr »

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #19
lusr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. It feels like intellectualization - a subconscious defence of personal choices made out to look like fact. I see this in everyday life all the time, and I daresay the root of it is an irrational subconscious fear that the person being criticized (here, the friend) may succeed, and what that potential success implies about the speaker. In this case, if the friend follows their "me too" path and "su…

The OP says: That’s not what I meant. I know YC is a great place. But why do YOU want to get in? I don't think he was being as critical of the path chosen but more so of why the friend decided to start the journey to begin with. I might be misinterpreting things though.

The friend answered the question:

"Listen. It’s never been easier to start a company. And right now, money is thrown left and right. In the past year alone, six of my colleagues left my company to start their own startups. I figured if they can do it, I can too."

OP didn't like that answer and skipped past it, and I'm playing psychoanalyst by wondering why.

Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#36

Post by [deleted] »

nostromo wrote: post #28
AVTizzle wrote: post #5

There's a subtle, rather meta feeling I can't shake when I read "cautionary" blog posts like these. It's the feeling that maybe the author isn't writing it for anyone else's benefit as much as their own. Like the author writes to reinforce that, unlike said "friend" who's making all these cautionary mistakes, they themselves are in it for all the right reasons. Every time the author makes a, "he" statement, you can j…

Anyone who has been through an incubator has probably heard this line: "Most of your companies will fail. And now that I've said that, you're all feeling sorry for everyone else in the room." Honestly, I encourage my friends to take risks and try new things, even if I have inner doubts about their ability to pull it off. I do so because I think that trying something really, really hard improves you skill set -- even…

[deleted]

Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#37

Post by tomkin »

AdamFernandez wrote: post #25

I don't know if the author was trying to express this particular sentiment, but I am concerned by a general theme that I have noticed in articles I have been reading on HN lately. 1. We are in a bubble, because all these 'useless' startups are getting funding when they should not be (debatable on many levels). 2. Too many startups are focusing on areas that are over like 'Social'. 3. Some people just aren't good enou…

> Too many startups are focusing on areas that are over like 'Social'.

See, I like to think of a startup as any other brick and mortar business. If it manages to leap into a world-wide success, nothing wrong with that - but don't expect it. Have a game plan that focuses on the reality around you. A startup isn't always a Facebook or Instagram (although they were too, at a point). It's okay to build an online business and just make $60-120 k/year - you know, like any other B&M business owner. To me a "startup" is simply described as a scaleable model that employs technology intelligently with modern-day principals of delegation, pivoting & management.

I always get confused about exit strategy. To some it means here's what happens when/if I bail.... To others it seems to mean this is where I'll be a billionaire and.... Both are bunk to someone who is passionately building a product or service that they love.

Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#38

Post by tomkin »

AVTizzle wrote: post #5

There's a subtle, rather meta feeling I can't shake when I read "cautionary" blog posts like these. It's the feeling that maybe the author isn't writing it for anyone else's benefit as much as their own. Like the author writes to reinforce that, unlike said "friend" who's making all these cautionary mistakes, they themselves are in it for all the right reasons. Every time the author makes a, "he" statement, you can j…

The main over-arching point is perfectly palatable, but the probing element ("That’s not what I meant. I know YC is a great place. But why do YOU want to get in?") in the post comes off as passive-agressive.

Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#39

Post by shantanubala »

larrys wrote: post #26

"- But why do you want to get into YC? - Are you kidding? It’s an awesome opportunity: you get to mingle with smart people, work on something exciting, get funding and mentorship, investors will chase you to give you money, and you’re much more likely get acquired in the future. - That’s not what I meant. I know YC is a great place. But why do YOU want to get in?" "why do YOU want to get in?" The question was answere…

Definitely. Mingling with smart people, working on something exciting, and getting mentorship are often ends in themselves and don't need any further justification.

Re: The "Me, Too" Startup Syndrome

#40

Post by jack-r-abbit »

rainbow wrote: post #34
jack-r-abbit wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we just be glad that we're no longer looked at as "dorky programmers that can't even get a mate" and just move on? Why kick the hornet's nest?

Because your 'we' in this case assumes your reader is male. Again.

Well... I said "mate" for a reason. I didn't assume anything. But not everything can be written with those generic s/he or his/her notation. Sometimes... it just looks stupid. Sometimes a gender must be picked... and it will always be wrong to someone. Why does it have to be an issue all the time? Why do we have to assume that every time a person writes anything and they decide that a character is a male then the writer is sexist?

Besides... the poem said "a few girlfriends...". I am quite sure that this is a very accurate statement. Of the "Thousands of applications" that were submitted I imagine that enough of them were from men that a few of them had girlfriends that slept alone that night. Why does it have to be taken to the extreme and interpreted as "all these women sleeping away as all the men (and only the men) go off to start companies and get rich"?

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