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Why to Not Not Start a Startup

paulgraham.com

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Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#71

Post by philc »

pg wrote: post #18
herdrick wrote: post #8

Excellent. The essay and talk together produced several surprises. The essay cleared up things things that the video obscured (couldn't see the visuals), like the "not-so-smart" / "enterprise software" connection (I was thinking he just meant the competition was dumb so you'd have the one-eyed man / land of the blind advantage). The big surprise is that YC hasn't seen an order of magnitude increase in applicants from…

Part of the reason the number of applications isn't that much higher than it was the first time is that we've changed our approach to founders. Initially we pitched YC as a substitute for a summer job for students. Then we realized that we wanted people more committed than that-- that it was actually bad to fund people still in school, in fact, because it's so easy for them to give up. We will fund people still in sc…

I remember meeting someone during the WFP interviews that was still employed. What constraints do you have on people still working at tech firms like Google or MS?

Have you ever had any issues with IP?

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#72

Post by Elfan »

LongInTheTooth wrote: post #54

I wonder how large a factor student debt is when people consider the one or the other. A guaranteed liability can be a powerful motivator for finding guaranteed income. (Although if you think that a job at a big company is guaranteed income, you've never worked at a big company going through any kind of hard times!)

Its income period. If you are reasonably frugal any sort of "real" programming job is enough to handle the loan payments.

But no matter how frugal you are a $40000 debt is unlikely to be paid off on $10000 in funding. You would be making a big bet not only on a success but a timely one. So yes I think student debt is a large deterrent for those who have it.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#73

Post by far33d »

ced wrote: post #50
Goladus wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your reason for working on hard AI problems at Google? Not a rhetorical question. One reason to worry about how my site renders in Safari is that I know people use Safari and if my site doesn't work for them they won't use my site. There's a thrill that comes when people enthusiastically approve of your work. Also I know my site will be higher quality and more valuable if it renders in safari. The more valuab…

"AI problems at Google" is just an example. I find hard technical problems interesting. A problem is hard if I don't know in advance whether or not I will be able to solve it. AI is hard. Making a good OS is hard. Startups avoid hard problems, because they have enough things to worry about already. I'm not saying the job at Google with Peter Norvig (ah) is perfect. I was just pointing out another reason why I'm hesit…

That's funny. I work at a place that's supposedly full of hard technical (and creative) problems. But they're always someone else's problems.

And for every hard problem at a "real" job, there's 10 annoying ones. I bet the startup ratio is probably similar, but they're YOUR problems (hard and annoying), not someone elses.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#74

Post by nateritter »

I think this is a great essay, but it's missing one very important factor which keeps me from starting a startup (successfully so far) - networking. I don't know the right people, and knowing people is so much of the battle (as I've found recently).... I guess that's not much of a problem if you are Paul Graham, or know Paul Graham. But, it's a problem for average joes like me. Spend all your time hacking on a problem and no time meeting the right people and you'll still have problems with your startup, like getting funded, getting known by the public, etc. That takes people.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#75

Post by scrollinondubs »

I just finished reading this essay and there were so many sentances that resonated for me that I may have to frame the whole friggin thing. We had originally applied a year ago for the Y Combinator summer program of 06. We didn't make it but we did the startup on our own instead and it continues to be the most rewarding experience of my life: JumpBox.com Paul, you are an absolute beacon in this industry. I look forward to reading all these comments on this post next...

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#76

Post by rsynnott »

nateritter wrote: post #74

I think this is a great essay, but it's missing one very important factor which keeps me from starting a startup (successfully so far) - networking. I don't know the right people, and knowing people is so much of the battle (as I've found recently).... I guess that's not much of a problem if you are Paul Graham, or know Paul Graham. But, it's a problem for average joes like me. Spend all your time hacking on a proble…

Yes, I'd have more or less the same view; I don't know enough people, and I doubt I have the social skills to court VCs or similar. I've worked for a couple of startups/ex-startups, and in each case there was at least one person there from the beginning who was very good at things like that.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#77

Post by jdb »

Paul writes: "The big mystery to me is: why don't more people start startups? If nearly everyone who does it prefers it to a regular job, and a significant percentage get rich, why doesn't everyone want to do this?"

You have a logical disconnect here, involving the self-selecting nature of the group. One could just as easily say: most people who try bungee-jumping enjoy it - why doesn't everyone bungee jump?

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#78

Post by AurSaraf »

rsynnott wrote: post #76
nateritter wrote: post #74

I think this is a great essay, but it's missing one very important factor which keeps me from starting a startup (successfully so far) - networking. I don't know the right people, and knowing people is so much of the battle (as I've found recently).... I guess that's not much of a problem if you are Paul Graham, or know Paul Graham. But, it's a problem for average joes like me. Spend all your time hacking on a proble…

Yes, I'd have more or less the same view; I don't know enough people, and I doubt I have the social skills to court VCs or similar. I've worked for a couple of startups/ex-startups, and in each case there was at least one person there from the beginning who was very good at things like that.

Hello. I am Aur Saraf.

Social skills are learnable. Very learnable.

I believe that every geek should submit himself to a crash course in social skills (to a level where he can control a room in a party). It's really not that hard. The problem is that it's one of those problems where no one would admit it and therefore I currently research the field alone, recording my results in private (anyone interesting in starting a community dedicated to it should contact me by mail, hunt my address).

Aur Saraf

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#79

Post by jackpipe »

Well, you state that 0% of your startups had a bad experience. But of course these were the ones that got funding - they are already winners, even if they later failed to make it big. What about the 400-odd that didn't get funding? It takes much more than a couple of weekends in a cafe to put together a decent startup proposal, often the startups have made considerable sacrifice, not to mention putting their hopes and dreams on the line, even to get face time with potential investors.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#80

Post by jackpipe »

To the JumpBox guy. Interesting idea. You need to come right out with what you're doing, on the home page, or in the first sentence of the 'about' page. I don't want to read a paragraph of crap about automobiles, before coming to what you're all about. Also, I'm sure LAMP components (ie the various tiers of web server) would be a hit - ie seperate VM images for apache, database, etc.
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