I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start • Hacker News Board

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#71

Post by srcreigh » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 1:21 AM UTC

basicallydan wrote: post #33

And we have nothing. Startups are nowhere to be found on campus colleges, maybe with the exception of Stanford and MIT. Here in the UK we have a startup job fair called Silicon Milkroundabout [1]. At the moment it's London-based, but it attracts a huge amount of college grads. I suspect they'll soon be moving into doing or taking part in job fairs at Universities around the UK, because they're growing pretty quickly…

That part of the article didn't resonate with me, either.

I go to the University of Waterloo in Canada and as a second-year (sophomore) have already worked at a startup for an internship. I got that internship because of the co-op program at my school --- startups often hire from it. I'm not alone, either: several of my friends at UW are or have been startup interns. One friend is interning right now at a YC startup.

That's not even to mention the huge hackathon movement that has swept technical schools across North America. Startups have a huge presence in hackathons at UMich, Yale, MIT, UPenn, UW, University of Toronto, McGill University, and many others.

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#72

Post by kayman » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 1:25 AM UTC

Start with building stuff. Polishing your skills and becoming a full stack kind of person, tech or not.

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#73

Post by mitochondrion » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 1:26 AM UTC

codr wrote: post #65

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In English the male pronoun is the generic and has been for centuries. Every time somebody misuses she/her as the generic I'm knocked into a moment of confusion wondering who this sudden specific chick is. Let's cut the crap; when people write she/her/womankind for the generic it's about PC. It's not standard English.

> "In English the male pronoun is the generic" Indeed.. and that's the problem. The times, they are a changin!

Sorry, but why is that at all a problem?

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#74

Post by sayemm » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 1:35 AM UTC

failed2 wrote: post #67

sayemm wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously not, but there are plenty of success stories out there on the internet. It's far much more of a walk in the park than making it with a venture-backed startup first time around. If you don't have what it takes to make it with a "lifestyle business", then there's no way you have what it takes to make it as a startup founder. Also, sorry don't mean to sound cocky. I'm still a failed entrepreneur, just speaking…

I'd add an important lesson that I have learned: it takes money to make money. A ton (perhaps most) failed businesses fail because they're undercapitalized. Even if your costs are low you can only go so long without eating, and if you're worrying about how your life savings is going to run out in 4 months I guarantee that you won't be as effective at building your business. Your chances of bootstrapping a successful…

"I'd add an important lesson that I have learned: it takes money to make money."

Amen. Although, my approach is to be working full-time making a good salary, but spend my nights/weekends working on my business and investing my savings into it. I'm not going to do it full-time until I start making good $ with it.

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#75

Post by argonaut » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 1:58 AM UTC

untog wrote: post #14

It’s no surprise that Alex mistakenly chose a big company over a startup straight out of school even though he was already interested in startups. That was not necessarily a mistake. As a fresh college grad (and particularly as an engineer) I'd argue that you are ill-equipped to judge a good startup opportunity from a bad one. There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending time at a large company, benefitting from t…

There's huge variability among startups.

There are small startups; no one knows whether these will succeed, even if they're YC startups.

There are big(ger) startups that are clearly on the way up. Pinterest. Dropbox. Airbnb. Uber. Snapchat.

Then there are medium sized but fast growing startups. Quora. Stripe. etc.

The latter two categories are obvious choices.

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#76

Post by failed2 » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 2:00 AM UTC

sayemm wrote: post #74

failed2 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd add an important lesson that I have learned: it takes money to make money. A ton (perhaps most) failed businesses fail because they're undercapitalized. Even if your costs are low you can only go so long without eating, and if you're worrying about how your life savings is going to run out in 4 months I guarantee that you won't be as effective at building your business. Your chances of bootstrapping a successful…

"I'd add an important lesson that I have learned: it takes money to make money." Amen. Although, my approach is to be working full-time making a good salary, but spend my nights/weekends working on my business and investing my savings into it. I'm not going to do it full-time until I start making good $ with it.

I don't know how well the night/weekend ventures actually work out but if you're not willing to wait to start a business, I'd bet on a night/weekend venture over a full-time one where the founder thinks $10,000 in savings is going to take him to break even.

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#77

Post by argonaut » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 2:03 AM UTC

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #55

scarecrowbob wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former university English instructor here; the usage you are critiquing is widely regarded as a good tradeoff between deferring to the gendering baked into our language and recognizing the integration of a population. It's often much easier to write and read pronouns, and it is my opinion (though far from an accepted truth) that alternating him/her when contextually appropriate is less clunky than using the him/herse…

In English the male pronoun is the generic and has been for centuries. Every time somebody misuses she/her as the generic I'm knocked into a moment of confusion wondering who this sudden specific chick is. Let's cut the crap; when people write she/her/womankind for the generic it's about PC. It's not standard English.

There are no fixed rules in language over time.

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#78

Post by scarecrowbob » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 5:10 AM UTC

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #55

scarecrowbob wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former university English instructor here; the usage you are critiquing is widely regarded as a good tradeoff between deferring to the gendering baked into our language and recognizing the integration of a population. It's often much easier to write and read pronouns, and it is my opinion (though far from an accepted truth) that alternating him/her when contextually appropriate is less clunky than using the him/herse…

In English the male pronoun is the generic and has been for centuries. Every time somebody misuses she/her as the generic I'm knocked into a moment of confusion wondering who this sudden specific chick is. Let's cut the crap; when people write she/her/womankind for the generic it's about PC. It's not standard English.

"In English the male pronoun is the generic and has been for centuries. "

Well, so has treating women like second class humans, but hopefully we can overcome that, too, no? Languages live... yes it is about acknowledging difference, but so what?

"Every time somebody misuses she/her as the generic I'm knocked into a moment of confusion wondering who this sudden specific chick is."

I was at the barber in my tiny Texas town today... you should have heard their comments when "his husband" came over the TV audio... they were shocked, too.

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#79

Post by swainner » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 6:14 AM UTC

sayemm wrote: post #48

I've been working on startups more or less for most of my 20s (both as a founder and an employee at a venture-backed startup), I've learned a great deal from it, lost a lot from it and endured a lot of hardship, but I think the journey also transformed me and cut me out of wood ( http://max.levch.in/post/36289276742/strengthen-your-startup... ). So no regrets, I'm really excited about the future and I'm thinking long…

I'll throw my hat in the ring. I started an eCommerce enterprise SaaS focused business in high school as a hobby, sold it for $4M at age 21, bought it back for $32k, built it again into a $6M/year revenue (profitable) business, and sold it again in 2012 to Answers.com. All of this was 100% bootstrapped with revenue, no debt, no outside funding. In neither case, round one or round two, did I self-fund it, other than the $32k -- the revenues from the business funded the business, it wasn't me funding anything. Sure, it was a long slog, but worth it.

Re: I want to get into startups, but I don’t know where to start

#80

Post by o2sd » Thu, Mar 06, 2014, 6:33 AM UTC

When I read articles like this, I feel old. Really old.

I mean, 28 years in the workforce, staring blankly in meetings when someone talks about 'synergy' and 'driving the key factors forward' as if it actually means something, when really it is a 20th century sub-dialect of English known as 'corporate bullshit'.

And here comes a brave new world of hackers and painters who are 'passionate' and who "bounced around a couple of times in corporately jobs that aren’t the right match and is ready to take the leap". He doesn't have that "founders spark", whatever that is, but he is "awesome" and "super, super smart", and seemingly importantly, "ambitious and passionate".

Apparently, startups are "cool" now, so programmers are no longer sucked into Wall Street by the evil siren songs of Vampire Squids.

Forgive my crusty old cynicism, but it all sounds like a pitch, a new sub-dialect of bullshit, to convince young software developers to work long hours for low pay with the promise of creating something "cool" that you are "passionate" about. (Personally, I'm pretty passionate about prosperity).

And always in the background is the unspoken promise of great riches (Whatsapp was bought for 19 BEEELION dollars!!). Unspoken, because that would be gauche to suggest it was about the money.