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The Future of Web Startups

paulgraham.com

11–20 of 173 posts

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#12
With standardization comes bureaucracy. I dread what will happen when all this starts to become apparent to the government, and they decide that they need to "fix" some of the perceived injustices. How long before we start seeing laws regulating founder/investor relationships that look like our current laws for employers and employees? Will investors start being required to submit reports to the government to prove that their investment decisions aren't racially biased?

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#14

>> "Sometimes it literally is software, like Hacker News and our application rating system." You have software to rate the applications?

I assume he just means that the administrative interface to the submission system lets them record scores for each application they review.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#15

well, i hope he's right about startups becoming more pervasive. i'd love to be on the bandwagon already, but i don't meet a lot of the qualifications. if the bar is lowered just a LITTLE bit, i am so there.

The only qualification that you don't meet is confidence! If you say you can't, then you won't.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#16
post #6

What Paul ignores is the fact that most people out of college are faced with seemingly insurmountable debt as a result of having to pay for an education - esp. in America (and to a lesser extent in Canada). This is one problem that will prevent startups from happening at such a rapid pace as he anticipates. In fact, most graduates want to find stable jobs to pay off their debt -- startups are not really on most gradu…

So wouldn't those people drop out earlier? If you strip out the emotional content of your post, it's quite banal: the price of a product (college) is going up, so people who buy the product (students who pay full tuition) have less money, and since money is a transportable, transferable form of freedom, they're less free. " In fact, most graduates want to find stable jobs to pay off their debt -- startups are not rea…

"So wouldn't those people drop out earlier?"

No those people would not drop out earlier, because they likely did not know they wanted to be startup founders until they had enough technical knowledge and/or more importantly built those relationships with students around them which led to the creation of a startup in the first place. Perhaps your experience has been different in which case I cannot argue with that.

"when you could do something fun for one year and have a 10% chance of more than paying off your debt"

For precisely that reason -- that the likelihood of success is only 10%. And it often takes more than a year to build something meaningful.

"Also, employers are impressed by people who start their own businesses."

This is not always true. It depends on the role the employee is being hired into.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#17
post #6

What Paul ignores is the fact that most people out of college are faced with seemingly insurmountable debt as a result of having to pay for an education - esp. in America (and to a lesser extent in Canada). This is one problem that will prevent startups from happening at such a rapid pace as he anticipates. In fact, most graduates want to find stable jobs to pay off their debt -- startups are not really on most gradu…

So wouldn't those people drop out earlier? If you strip out the emotional content of your post, it's quite banal: the price of a product (college) is going up, so people who buy the product (students who pay full tuition) have less money, and since money is a transportable, transferable form of freedom, they're less free. " In fact, most graduates want to find stable jobs to pay off their debt -- startups are not rea…

Regarding the businessweek comment, I can only say that if the desire and willingness to start companies was a meaningful trend, it _might_ have been noted as an option.

I would disagree with this: "1) that doesn't appeal to BW's audience" starting businesses _does_ appeal to businessweeks audience. ;)

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#18

well, i hope he's right about startups becoming more pervasive. i'd love to be on the bandwagon already, but i don't meet a lot of the qualifications. if the bar is lowered just a LITTLE bit, i am so there.

The only qualification that you don't meet is confidence! If you say you can't, then you won't.

that's a nice attitude, and generally i agree.

by "don't qualify," i mean i'm not really into the game the same way as the companies ycombinator seems to fund. for example, i'm not that excited about writing web apps, it just doesn't appeal to me. i think there are important sectors that could benefit from a bunch of startups that paul has completely written off, because he thinks it's less lucrative, i guess. well, i'm willing to take a LOT less money to do something i'm actually interested in, rather than learning ruby on rails, say.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#19
post #6

What Paul ignores is the fact that most people out of college are faced with seemingly insurmountable debt as a result of having to pay for an education - esp. in America (and to a lesser extent in Canada). This is one problem that will prevent startups from happening at such a rapid pace as he anticipates. In fact, most graduates want to find stable jobs to pay off their debt -- startups are not really on most gradu…

So wouldn't those people drop out earlier? If you strip out the emotional content of your post, it's quite banal: the price of a product (college) is going up, so people who buy the product (students who pay full tuition) have less money, and since money is a transportable, transferable form of freedom, they're less free. " In fact, most graduates want to find stable jobs to pay off their debt -- startups are not rea…

Betting against people being (even irrationally) risk averse is probably not a safe bet.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#20
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So wouldn't those people drop out earlier? If you strip out the emotional content of your post, it's quite banal: the price of a product (college) is going up, so people who buy the product (students who pay full tuition) have less money, and since money is a transportable, transferable form of freedom, they're less free. " In fact, most graduates want to find stable jobs to pay off their debt -- startups are not rea…

Betting against people being (even irrationally) risk averse is probably not a safe bet.

Was that deliberately self-referential?
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