Live data from Hacker News

Making Startups Powerful

paulgraham.com

61–70 of 152 posts

Re: Making Startups Powerful

#61

I wonder what the tipping point was where the general attitude towards PG and his essays changed. It's tempting to say AI, but I feel it was more like AirBnB era? When people saw how one of YC's golden goose affected the local communities, the rosy color on our glasses inevitably faded.

[flagged]

Re: Making Startups Powerful

#62
post #59

I feel like the basis of this post is that in the current state of software development, SaaS alone holds very limited power.

if so, are Salesforce and Oracle in trouble yet?

No, they are not in trouble yet. I'm not saying SaaS is dead. The article, to me, reads as, if you are in SaaS, you better be looking at ways to build power above and beyond a simple service, be it a network moat, corporate compliance, competing with the vertical....

Re: Making Startups Powerful

#64
post #60

> Being generous makes you more powerful. As Tim O'Reilly said, you should create more value than you capture. Many hard-headed business types would write this off as idealistic hippy stuff, but in fact this is the route to becoming really rich. > Hired CEOS take the power of the companies they run for granted, whereas founders remember the days when the company was so weak that it had to delight users to survive. I'…

my advice? be the boss.

before the pandemic hit and most of the world was quarantined, we decided to give loom away to students and teachers for free and made the service 50% off indefinitely. this was generous but also strategic. we made the simple deduction that, should people be locked inside, they would naturally see their sons/daughters using loom as students. or their spouse or roommates as teacher/staff.

Re: Making Startups Powerful

#66
post #60

> Being generous makes you more powerful. As Tim O'Reilly said, you should create more value than you capture. Many hard-headed business types would write this off as idealistic hippy stuff, but in fact this is the route to becoming really rich. > Hired CEOS take the power of the companies they run for granted, whereas founders remember the days when the company was so weak that it had to delight users to survive. I'…

This depends on what you are building and what your goals are. What pg is referring to is how to build transformative companies, unicorns if you will.

There's plenty of businesses where you are simply optimizing a funnel, and driving more revenue at all costs is fully aligned with the goals of the company

Re: Making Startups Powerful

#67
post #63

How about "making investors less powerful"?

You should read the essay. It is mostly about pivoting towards an outsized outcomes for founders & leveraging various avenues available to their advantage.

I don't mean less powerful relative to startup founders, I mean less powerful in terms of how we allocate resources in the economy.

Re: Making Startups Powerful

#68
post #60

> Being generous makes you more powerful. As Tim O'Reilly said, you should create more value than you capture. Many hard-headed business types would write this off as idealistic hippy stuff, but in fact this is the route to becoming really rich. > Hired CEOS take the power of the companies they run for granted, whereas founders remember the days when the company was so weak that it had to delight users to survive. I'…

My sense is that it's context dependent. If you've got VC backing (or could soon) and are making deals in SF, the generosity path makes a lot of sense. Limited downside, infinite upside. You can afford generosity.

If you're starting with $2000 and bootstrapping a textiles business out of Kolkata, it's a terrible idea, you're likely going to immediately get burned and never recover.

(take with a grain of salt as I have no experience, just stating my observations)

Post reply on HN