Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Future of Web Startups

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 173 posts

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#111

Post by imgabe »

gcheong wrote: post #63

Does anyone believe that the future viability of web application innovation depends on the availability of consumer access to higher and higher bandwidth connections (at a cheaper and cheaper cost - to the point of commoditization), and if so, as the US falls further behind other countries in this respect,will that reduce the relevance of Silicon Valley as a startup hub for web application companies? Which country (c…

I think Japan or South Korea is at the forefront in terms of widespread availability of cheap high speed internet access. Probably their reputations as societies that are not very inviting to foreigners, and the difficulty of non-native speakers learning the language is going to dissuade a lot of people from moving there to start companies.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#112

Post by Jaggu »

Paul,

Your each and every article is giving indication that married people are not good enough to start startup. Come on man - I am reading your articles to inspire myself and to keep up my tempo but when I read age analysis then that is very demotivating.

Well I think I need to find place where there are success stories without age limit ;)

I understand that kids and wife can take quite a bit time. But if there are people like me who dreams about own business for years and wasn't able to start it because never found right channels and due to that now I am above 30. Now I have vision and courage but also I am married. Does it mean that I have to stop seeing dream? No way man. I am here to prove you wrong. Will let you know whenever I am succesful :)

Thanks for all great articles.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#113

Post by lakai »

Jaggu wrote: post #112

Paul, Your each and every article is giving indication that married people are not good enough to start startup. Come on man - I am reading your articles to inspire myself and to keep up my tempo but when I read age analysis then that is very demotivating. Well I think I need to find place where there are success stories without age limit ;) I understand that kids and wife can take quite a bit time. But if there are…

I agree. I would rather invest in a startup run by a 30+ person than one run by two 20 somethings. I think one problem of starting up at 30+ is that one has achieved already a level of income, status etc. Putting that to risk is not so easy step to take than just having graduated. But if such a person takes that risk her idea is probably worth a second look...

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#114

Post by youngnh »

pg wrote: post #52
some wrote: post #40

I dont think starting startups gets cheaper. The whole essay is based on this idea. But Paul gives no reasons, why there should be a such a trend.

Moore's Law, open source, more abstract languages, the web for promotion. (I believe this list is in the Wikipedia entry for YC.)

so its cheaper for software startups only, then?

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#115

Post by ivankirigin »

youngnh wrote: post #114
pg wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moore's Law, open source, more abstract languages, the web for promotion. (I believe this list is in the Wikipedia entry for YC.)

so its cheaper for software startups only, then?

Hardware development, prototyping, and testing is cheaper for a number of reasons.

Cheap CAD tools, cheap custom boards, processized manufacturing.

Most people drastically underappreciate how much China has helped innovation in this regard.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#116

Post by tedhenry »

emmanuel81 wrote: post #43

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 th…

I love the suggested subjects!

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#117

Post by swards »

Can't agree with the "Younger, nerdier founders" section.

It's like any other long tail, in this case the prototypical founder (late 20', single, technical guy) will not be as common - it'll become a more-diverse population. There will be younger founders and there will be older founders, too. Nerdier, and hipper. Etc.

For example, I'm a 40 yo front-end developer (started in 1995 building interactive apps at ESPN). I'm now starting a company, doing all the backend development too, thanks to Ruby on Rails. This was never available to me before 2006, really.

My bet - the trend will be away from the core developers, as the back end tools become commoditized and packaged, and the prized employees will become the designers - UI and graphical. Brands and positioning will start to play a larger part, and these contributors will have the most to say about this part of the company. I predict the trend will go away from the technical, as people will need to wear many hats in a small company.

As for the young, I don't believe they have an advantage in a crowded startup environment. The lucky bet, or obvious missing younger-demographic website will be created by the kids, but this will happen less and less as the low-hanging fruit is gobbled up. Instead, I think the older (or rather experienced) will have an advantage in a crowded startup world. Here, it'll be the niche positioning, establishing business relationships, and pursuing effective growth strategies that will make the difference.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#119

Post by jimbokun »

imgabe wrote: post #111
gcheong wrote: post #63

Does anyone believe that the future viability of web application innovation depends on the availability of consumer access to higher and higher bandwidth connections (at a cheaper and cheaper cost - to the point of commoditization), and if so, as the US falls further behind other countries in this respect,will that reduce the relevance of Silicon Valley as a startup hub for web application companies? Which country (c…

I think Japan or South Korea is at the forefront in terms of widespread availability of cheap high speed internet access. Probably their reputations as societies that are not very inviting to foreigners, and the difficulty of non-native speakers learning the language is going to dissuade a lot of people from moving there to start companies.

A lot of people study Japanese, think Japan is really cool, and would enjoy living there, I think. I think Korea is behind Japan in these trends but catching up.

I do agree, though, that Japan does have a reputation of being not very inviting to foreigners that is to some degree deserved. I don't know as much about S. Korea in this regard.

Japan could probably do much to solve some of their looming economic problems (low birth rate and rapidly aging population, for example) by allowing more people to immigrate and integrate into Japanese society and culture. Especially entrepreneurial, technology loving types who could contribute a lot to Japan's high tech economy.

Re: The Future of Web Startups

#120

Post by jimbokun »

indie01 wrote: post #74

>> One of the most important things we've been working on standardizing are investment terms. I can see this being very beneficial, both for the VCs and the startups. The standardization of terminology in any discipline or field allows the people in it to have their lingo easily referenced and indexed, increasing efficiencies. Who wants to wade through a bunch of superfluous gibberish to get to the point? In grad sch…

"In grad school, I remember having the realization that every discipline has it's own little shorthand lingo. I remember thinking about how confusion can result when there are clashes/overlaps in, for example, acronyms."

I've long ago lost track of all the different meanings I've run into for the word "feature", for example. Practitioners of various academic disciplines (or even in the same discipline but for a different theory) use this term for all kinds of things with absolutely no connection to each other. I nominate this for most overloaded academic term.

Any other nominees?

Post reply on HN