The Future of Web Startups • Hacker News Board

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#41

Post by paul » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 6:09 PM UTC

electric wrote: 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…

One solution is to avoid accumulating a huge debt. I went to a school that gives out scholarships based on SAT scores (CWRU).

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#42

Post by distrsearch » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 6:09 PM UTC

Great post, as usual, there is one point though - assuming that all the best will move to the startup hubs is like efficient markets hypothesis i.e. not really. They would move in a rational world but there are many seemingly irrational reasons that you can find world class people in obscure places anywhere in the world and, moreover, they are content to stay there. I am talking from personal experience, in my previous (vertical) search startup my chief programmer was world-class and had results to prove it, has since produced another world-class (Facebook) app and has not set foot in US ever. Similarly in my current search startup, I have some really great young kids. So the moral is that sure, the ratio of world class people is higher in startup hubs, but the rest of the world is so much bigger :) that many more are still out there ...

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#43

Post by emmanuel81 » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 6:26 PM UTC

Yet another essay on startups, by PG... It appears that essays tend to be cheaper to make, as time goes on, too (thanks to, you know, copy/paste). I couldn't find any ideas here that hadn't been expressed elsewhere in your writings or wasn't self-evident. We want more crazy controversial stuff, like the last (brilliant) one on philosophy!

Ideas for new subjects:

- "google is dead";

- "how to fund painters";

- "all things considered, java rocks";

- "vaporware, or why I gave up arc";

- "return of the web 1.0"

There are plenty of weird ideas that only wait for PG to write clever stuff on them! Seriously, I don't know why people like FOWA, whoever that is, actually pay you to listen to the same old story...

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#44

Post by byrneseyeview » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 6:32 PM UTC

allenbrunson wrote: post #39

byrneseyeview wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're very specific about what you won't do, but very vague about what you will do. Why?

erm, because it seems off-topic here? this is paul's world. i like reading about the energy and creativity involved in web startups. i personally think that narrowing the field to just web startups is short-sighted, but that's not my call to make, certainly not here.

Okay. It might make your argument more compelling. You're making a judgement that Web 2.0 startups are relatively bad -- it would be nice to know what they're relatively bad compared to.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#45

Post by electric » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 6:47 PM UTC

byrneseyeview wrote: post #26

electric wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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. "wh…

So you're saying that college, while expensive, is still worth it? I don't get your argument. For a given student, either college is too expensive to be worth it, and people will drop out early, or it's cheap enough to be worth it, and people will finish. Only one of these things can be true, and there are obvious conclusions depending on which you pick. So which is it? "For precisely that reason..." Did you miss wha…

"So you're saying that college, while expensive, is still worth it? "

Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. You meet like-minded people there who are excited about technology - potential co-founders. You learn about technology.

I've been through 3 universities, and the relationships I have built at these institutions have helped me to this day. I'm running a startup btw.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#46

Post by srt19170 » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 6:53 PM UTC

Where is the evidence that Google has the best programmers? Certainly if you look at Google's acquisitions, they all stagnate post Google. Picasa was a pretty good product -- two years ago when Google bought it. Since then it's added a button to upload photos to Blogger. Gmail had a pretty good feature set for Web-based mail -- two years ago when it rolled out. Since then? etc.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#47

Post by byrneseyeview » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 6:55 PM UTC

electric wrote: post #45

byrneseyeview wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying that college, while expensive, is still worth it? I don't get your argument. For a given student, either college is too expensive to be worth it, and people will drop out early, or it's cheap enough to be worth it, and people will finish. Only one of these things can be true, and there are obvious conclusions depending on which you pick. So which is it? "For precisely that reason..." Did you miss wha…

"So you're saying that college, while expensive, is still worth it? " Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. You meet like-minded people there who are excited about technology - potential co-founders. You learn about technology. I've been through 3 universities, and the relationships I have built at these institutions have helped me to this day. I'm running a startup btw.

What was the point of your original post? It looks like you were saying "It is better to have a college education than to spend that time or money in any other possible way." But you keep saying that like it's a bad thing, and talking about how college reduces your chances of starting a startup because it's so expensive. If college increases your chances of starting a startup, and you want to start a startup, your original post doesn't make sense. What were you trying to say?

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#48

Post by electric » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 6:58 PM UTC

byrneseyeview wrote: post #47

electric wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"So you're saying that college, while expensive, is still worth it? " Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. You meet like-minded people there who are excited about technology - potential co-founders. You learn about technology. I've been through 3 universities, and the relationships I have built at these institutions have helped me to this day. I'm running a startup btw.

What was the point of your original post? It looks like you were saying "It is better to have a college education than to spend that time or money in any other possible way." But you keep saying that like it's a bad thing, and talking about how college reduces your chances of starting a startup because it's so expensive. If college increases your chances of starting a startup, and you want to start a startup, your or…

What I was saying is that paying for the education that gives you the tools to start a startup is one of the biggest impediments to starting one.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#49

Post by jsjenkins168 » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 7:02 PM UTC

dfranke wrote: post #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 t…

The government does not have an interest in impeding entrepreneurs or the formation of new businesses. The goals are usually the opposite, as can be seen with the various govt incentives and programs in place to help aspiring business owners.

I dont foresee increased regulation to be a big problem. Hindering the development of new businesses would be shooting the economy in the foot.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#50

Post by pg » Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 7:10 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #24

Prediction: Angel investors will ink deals with VCs to create an official pipeline. For example, let's say KPCB agrees to fund at least one Techstars company per year in exchange for first pick or something like that. That's the way elite prep schools interface with certain Ivy's, and it seems to work out for both of them. Of course startups will never get as locked down as colleges because there will always be more…

VCs would never agree to be constrained like that.