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Ask PG: What Is The Most Frighteningly Ambitious Idea You Have Been Pitched On?

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Re: Ask PG: What Is The Most Frighteningly Ambitious Idea You Have Been Pitched On?

#31

Post by markmm »

hollerith wrote: post #28
bhousel wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, what industry? Healthcare? Telecom? Can't think of too many that could credibly claim a $1B exit.

Huh? I have been assuming that a large fraction of VC-funded startups try for exits of at least $1 billion. (The more rational ones know they will probably fail, but that does not prevent their sincerely aiming for that target.) I am almost certain their investors want them to aim at least that high. Are you sure you're not confusing billion and trillion? ADDED. I'm not trying to appear bad-ass or hardcore (and in fa…

It would be good to see some stats on the number of companies per exit/valuation i.e.

50 billion 4 --- 10 billion : 100 --- 1 Billion : 10,000

Re: Ask PG: What Is The Most Frighteningly Ambitious Idea You Have Been Pitched On?

#32

Post by niklas_a »

hollerith wrote: post #28
bhousel wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, what industry? Healthcare? Telecom? Can't think of too many that could credibly claim a $1B exit.

Huh? I have been assuming that a large fraction of VC-funded startups try for exits of at least $1 billion. (The more rational ones know they will probably fail, but that does not prevent their sincerely aiming for that target.) I am almost certain their investors want them to aim at least that high. Are you sure you're not confusing billion and trillion? ADDED. I'm not trying to appear bad-ass or hardcore (and in fa…

I had the same reaction as you.

But to answer your question and being a startup founder myself - doing a startup is just an amazing experience. It's a bit like trying heroin (not that I've done that, but from what I hear). The highs are extremely high and the lows are extremely low. Going back to a "normal" job after doing a startup is like taking methadone.

Sometimes I wish I could think rationally around this (like you) and just take a normal job again. That would most likely be better for me in every measurable way (salary, benefits etc) but I'm just having too much fun doing startups.

Re: Ask PG: What Is The Most Frighteningly Ambitious Idea You Have Been Pitched On?

#35

Post by ig1 »

hollerith wrote: post #28
bhousel wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, what industry? Healthcare? Telecom? Can't think of too many that could credibly claim a $1B exit.

Huh? I have been assuming that a large fraction of VC-funded startups try for exits of at least $1 billion. (The more rational ones know they will probably fail, but that does not prevent their sincerely aiming for that target.) I am almost certain their investors want them to aim at least that high. Are you sure you're not confusing billion and trillion? ADDED. I'm not trying to appear bad-ass or hardcore (and in fa…

Investors generally aim for a 10x+ return, so if an investor invests $3m at $10m pre-val they'd be aiming for a $100m+ exit.

They're definitely not only aiming for $1bn+ exits although obviously they're a bonus (in the last decade there have probably been under 50 billion dollar exits in the tech space).

Re: Ask PG: What Is The Most Frighteningly Ambitious Idea You Have Been Pitched On?

#36

Post by ig1 »

Presumably PG can't answer because of confidentiality, but the the most ambitious one I've heard is a pitch for a company claiming they could build a trillion dollar company.

(They were working on a cement/concrete replacement that was cleaner and cheaper)

Re: Ask PG: What Is The Most Frighteningly Ambitious Idea You Have Been Pitched On?

#37

Post by scott_s »

npguy wrote: post #6
arctangent wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a useful tool to suggest the best times to post a new thread: http://hnpickup.appspot.com Is anyone aware of something similar which breaks this down by type of thread?

I must have used that for my show HN post. I was wondering why it was almost a dead response, While I have seen good response for similar show HN posts. anyways the post is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4495098

There's a large random component to what gets to, and stays on, the front page.

Re: Ask PG: What Is The Most Frighteningly Ambitious Idea You Have Been Pitched On?

#38

Post by mej10 »

bfe wrote: post #26

"We want to make our own rockets and spaceships from scratch. But that's just the beginning, to pave the way to settling Mars and making it affordable for middle-class customers to relocate to Mars." I imagine if Elon Musk had pitched SpaceX for YC, it would be a strong candidate for this.

Yeah, pretty much any of his recent ideas/companies are "frighteningly ambitious".

I do wonder how YC would handle someone that is as ambitious and skilled as Musk, but without his financial success. (Un?)Fortunately for them I think that is a pretty rare combination, so they probably don't have to worry too much.

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