A great read as always. Unlike the usual PG, more inspiring than analytical.
How Not to Die
11–20 of 154 posts
Re: How Not to Die
#12Interesting to hear about this since many of us wonder what ends up happening. Kind of an unappealing subject -- nobody wants to read Founders at Rest, right? I guess startups are like old soldiers, they just fade away. Anyone want memamp.com? It went to unregistered status a week or two ago. But this was a good handling of the subject, and good for founders to hear. What I think is great about YC's structure is that…
I think this is a good idea... >>I'm sure one of you is already thinking of how to make this a Facebook app, but I think a personal phone call would work best. Actually, my first thought was meetup group in a certain area.
That would be better, but also easier to flake on.
Re: How Not to Die
#13I will say it plainly: This is the most influential, well written essay I have ever read. It hit a chord very deep with me..
Re: How Not to Die
#14It's kind of depressing to not have any real startup peer group in Pittsburgh. News.yc is serving as a kind of substitute, for me. I'm really looking forward to when we get to turn our startup's shopping cart on and ask news.yc for feedback.
Re: How Not to Die
#15>> We've done this five times now, and we've seen a bunch of startups die. About 10 of them so far. So, not counting this batch (19), 10 out of 39 [1] startups died so far. So, the survival rate is 72%. Not bad! I know that some more YC companies might die at some point in the future, but the numbers so far seem impressive. [1] The following article quotes 58 companies funded in all: http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_n…
I don't think 72% is particularly good (I think it should be higher). I'm not sure you realise just how scary the thought of failing in front of so many hard-working people is...
Re: How Not to Die
#16>> We've done this five times now, and we've seen a bunch of startups die. About 10 of them so far. So, not counting this batch (19), 10 out of 39 [1] startups died so far. So, the survival rate is 72%. Not bad! I know that some more YC companies might die at some point in the future, but the numbers so far seem impressive. [1] The following article quotes 58 companies funded in all: http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_n…
I don't think 72% is particularly good (I think it should be higher). I'm not sure you realise just how scary the thought of failing in front of so many hard-working people is...
I think it's certainly better then when you hear about a 10% survival rate for startups, as stereotypical as that is. But you're right, it could be better. PG mentions a 90% survival rate is possible.
Re: How Not to Die
#1750% sounds like really good odds to me, given the payout. It depends to some extent on what it means to fail, and how long it takes to succeed. But if your odds of a substantial payout are 50%, and the length of time to get to success or failure is less than 4 years, then these are phenomenal odds.
Of course, it's not just money - you "pay" in other ways. If it takes, say, 4 years to get to the success or failure point, then some people will have worked for over 12 years with grim determination and still never quite nail it. I wonder if this is a memory-less process (ie., how does a previous failure affect your future attempts?). Wisdom and exhaustion in equal parts, I'd suspect, and only one side is going to win.
Re: How Not to Die
#18Thank you Paul.
If we can be recipients of messages like this, I don't think any of us not funded by YC should feel like we're outside the club.
Re: How Not to Die
#19A good friend of mine once described pg as a "modern-day Horatio Alger for hackers".
Re: How Not to Die
#20A great read as always. Unlike the usual PG, more inspiring than analytical.
What makes this inspiring is the extent to which it really is analytical; it's based on his accumulated experience with startups. Someone known for careful thinking is stating that for 90% of startups that look good based on an application and a single interview, success is only a matter of determination.