Cool read and all but I work at a hedge fund that is currently raising capital... It's nice that our parents always overestimate us
The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
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Re: The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
#32Some people are extremely competent but are risk averse, so they don't take the risk that's necessary for success. Others are risk tolerant but are not very capable, so they are unlikely to succeed despite taking the risk. The trick is to be in both groups simultaneously. So if you know in your heart of hearts that you are competent, then it is worth taking the risk.
Re: The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
#33I'm beginning to come to this realization myself - having balls is one of the most important factors of having success (no matter what success means to you, whether it's social, financial or something else). If you don't have the balls to do the things necessary to archive the things you want, with all your energy and will behind it, you simply won't archive it. Most people doesn't even try to do the things they fear…
its not always fear of failure. Sometimes you have to pragmatic too. For instance, doing a startup in Bay area with a family is not practical for a lot of people, especially given the current rental/living expenses.
doing a startup in Bay area with a family is not practical for a lot of people, especially given the current rental/living expenses.
That's still fear of failure, only in that case, the fear may be well founded. If they fail, they cannot feed their family, so they are afraid of failing and probably for good reason.
Re: The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
#34As someone who has started a business in the finance space trying to leverage technology, I take some offense to this. My business partners and I have worked our asses off over the last several years to get to where we are today: billions of dollars in assets powered by our investment models. Trust me: asking someone to give you money to put in your strategies is not easy. Unlike the start-up space, there is no "minimum viable product," "traction" metric, or even "asset" that has some intrinsic value (like a unique algorithm or brand). You either have a track record, or you don't. New strategies don't, so it's all "trust." Sure, I can show a "back-test" or "stress-test" -- but everyone knows those are bullshit anyway.
You think you know stress? Imagine knowing that every day, your models are making investment decisions for billions of dollars. Sure, it's a drop in the overall pool of assets in markets, but it is enough to keep you up at night, worried about someone's retirement or someone's college fund. Drop a few more percentage points than the market? Goodbye hundreds of millions of dollars. Yep, that's going to happen at 50 when you start your "easy life" as a hedge-fund manager.
I'm not saying my stress is greater. I'm just trying to make the point that every business has its own share of problems, and to say that being a tech entrepreneur takes any more balls than being any other kind of entrepreneur is naive.
Can we please stop, as a community, with the "woe is us, the tech entrepreneur?" It's embarrassing. Starting a business is starting a business, no matter the industry. In fact, I'd argue that we live in a golden age for tech entrepreneurship that has never existed in another industry. Imagine trying to start a bio-tech business or a manufacturing business (well, arguably "outsourcing" could be the manufacturing entrepreneur's "scale"...). There are no "seed" rounds. The assets you have to raise are probably 100x what a tech entrepreneur has to initially raise. On top of trying to build a product, you probably have to manage building and factory development, understand legal regulations for your industry, and manage tons of labor.
We live in a time where you can roll the dice and start a business in the tech space with a handful of smart people, some elbow-grease and maybe $50k in a seed round. This is a golden era.
I respect the hell out of what you are doing -- starting a business is NOT easy -- but please don't say it takes any more balls than starting a business in any other industry. It doesn't.
Re: The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
#35This might sound uncouth but that's the dad I wish I'd had.
I was thinking the same. My dad died when I was 2 years old and reading this makes me realize that I never had the sort of guidance through life Danielle seem to have had. So, I'm sitting here sipping my first coffee of the day and have a huge feeling of being directionless. Maybe the blog post was "drivel" to some here, but not to me.
I felt very very similar to you.
My own dad died when I was 8, so while he was around for some of my life, I was still much too young to get the guidance that I wish I'd got. On the other hand, I'm not doing too bad now, but sometimes I wonder if maybe I would be doing better if I had someone like that helping me. Then again, I don't really know what kind of dad he would have been as I got older - and he certainly wasn't anything fancy like a financial adviser, so I don't know what kind of advice or guidance I would have had - but I like to think it would have been beneficial. Sigh.
Re: The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
#36I'm beginning to come to this realization myself - having balls is one of the most important factors of having success (no matter what success means to you, whether it's social, financial or something else). If you don't have the balls to do the things necessary to archive the things you want, with all your energy and will behind it, you simply won't archive it. Most people doesn't even try to do the things they fear…
Are you saying people should not be afraid of failure?
Re: The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
#37For me, this story was most interesting because it demonstrates the impact of social class in America, something that's rarely discussed. Try to picture the same story if the author's father was a millwright or a construction worker.
Not at all a criticism of the author - we absolutely should work with the advantages we're given!
Re: The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
#38I think I have to side on the "this is a bad post" on Hacker News.
You might be an extremely bright, great person, but you seem to have an extremely large "safety net" so it's a lot easier to have testicular fortitude.
Re: The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
#39I hate to be that guy bitching without offering any constructive criticism, but this was painful to read. At least I had the courtesy to stick it through to the end to be sure before I posted this. We deserve better than this drivel at the top of HN.
DAMN dmor for placing it right at the top of HN! If only there was some way for things the larger community thought were useful/good to be on the top, instead of dmor just being able to put whatever she feels like up there. Maybe then we'd all get what we 'deserve' rather than dmor just forcing this drivel down our collective throats whenever she feels like it. :/
Re: The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
its not always fear of failure. Sometimes you have to pragmatic too. For instance, doing a startup in Bay area with a family is not practical for a lot of people, especially given the current rental/living expenses.
doing a startup in Bay area with a family is not practical for a lot of people, especially given the current rental/living expenses. That's still fear of failure, only in that case, the fear may be well founded. If they fail, they cannot feed their family, so they are afraid of failing and probably for good reason.
It's not fear of failure. It's possible that there are people who couldn't do a startup even if guaranteed 100% chance of success in 10 years due to the stress/lack of money in the mean time.