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Why Should I Start a Startup?

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#141

Post by wskinner »

SpaceManNabs wrote: post #115
aaron-lebo wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it like that, though? If you are single you can live pretty damn well on 40 to 50k (depending on where you are). If you are in a committed relationship with no kids, things get cheaper with scale (food, living expenses, etc). To make 40k a year isn't that difficult when the going rate is a lot higher for a full time job. You scrap together some part time work and then you are able to support yourself and have…

That is true, but not everybody has those conditions. Some people have other demands. For example, I would not be able to start a start up for a while even as a recent grad software engineer at a fortune 50 company because: 1. I have to support my mom and siblings every once in a while 2. Am saving up for grad school expenses (even with funding of tuition and such through grants and such, my mother would not be able…

Why do you feel entitled to start a startup?

Everything you mentioned aside from your medical expenses is a choice. If you choose to prioritize things that prevent you from starting a startup, then you are choosing not to start a startup.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#142

Post by graveThrow56 »

jasode wrote: post #125
graveThrow56 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul Graham goes to extra lengths to differentiate startups vs other type of business: it's all about growth. So this essay talks about startups under the YC brand, I assume we're talking about hi-growth business, not small and medium ones that have no goals to grow double digits every month. Finally, we should stop adding a condescending "lifestyle" qualififier to businesses that are not trying to become a unicorn.…

>stop adding a condescending "lifestyle" qualififier to businesses "Lifestyle" is a neutral label and is not a condescending perjorative unless you insist on perceiving it that way. See: + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle_business + https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4053554

If someone wants to start a business and call it lifestyle, great for them. It usually tells their business is not all their is in their life, and that's great.

When someone else calls a business "lifestyle" just because it is small, i believe it is condescending.

If I called the CEO of the 20-employees plumbing company i sometimes use, and asked him "how's your lifestyle business doing?" he would probably hang up on me.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#143

Post by akg_67 »

nostrademons wrote: post #123
vabmit wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's some truth to the family support part of this. I was just racking my brain trying to think of any founder I knew (and I know a ton of them) that was in the position of "success or potentially homeless". But, I can't. I think there's some variable confounding going on when YC and others talk about people in their early 20's being better positioned to do startups because they're less risk averse due to…

There are a few examples of startup founders who were potentially homeless if it failed (AirBnB is the obvious one...they started it because they were literally a month away from being homeless), but you're right, this is the exception rather than the rule. I think what's frequently overlooked in the "how do I get the resources to found a startup without risking everything?" is that you don't do it in one shot . If y…

> AirBnB is the obvious one...they started it because they were literally a month away from being homeless

How much of this statement is real and how much is just a marketing narrative put together afterward to make project look better or humanize? I see this over and over in every segment.

I laugh every time I read that an investment/asset manager claims to had a paper route or lemonade stand and.or bought 1 stock and suddenly wanted to be an investment/ asset manager.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#144

Post by mwseibel »

tmccrmck wrote: post #110
mwseibel wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I realized that I could be better

In what ways? Sorry Michael, but I reject the idea that you can be 'better' than another person.

I should have said I realized I could be better at the game of high school student looking to get into a good college.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#145

Post by mwseibel »

tristanho wrote: post #3

Loved this post, thanks! You mentioned the 3 constraints under which you (and many founders) thrive in: * Being the underdog * Hard challenges most people shy away from * Personal responsibility for outcomes Why are some people best under those conditions? Is it something trainable, or inherent?

No idea - maybe another way to think about it is im really bad when these constraints aren't in place

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#146

Post by mifeng »

vabmit wrote: post #98
taurath wrote: post #77

I do find it rather hilarious that he dropped interest in yale for being too academic, but during my (failed) interview as a web developer at Twitch about 5 years ago, the questioning had to do with only academic subjects like graph traversal algorithms - they proudly stated when I applied that 90% of their employees come from an Ivy league background. Here's who I think should start a startup: - People with the back…

I think there's some truth to the family support part of this. I was just racking my brain trying to think of any founder I knew (and I know a ton of them) that was in the position of "success or potentially homeless". But, I can't. I think there's some variable confounding going on when YC and others talk about people in their early 20's being better positioned to do startups because they're less risk averse due to…

I understand what you're saying, but are other paths besides being born with a silver spoon.

My family was on food stamps when I was a kid. After college, I worked for a long time in finance before joining the tech industry 7 years ago.

My savings during the first part of my career gave me the risk tolerance to do startups.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#147

Post by Karrot_Kream »

nostrademons wrote: post #138
koolkatkool wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was airbnb a month away from being evicted or a month away from asking their parents for another deposit? Lots of rich kids play at being poor all the while knowing they can call home at any point.

I don't know the family situation of the AirBnB founders personally, but Wikipedia says both of them were social workers, which isn't exactly what most people would consider a rich kid background. I'm always a bit perplexed by the people who come out of the woodwork to say that startups are a rich kid's game, though. What's the family background of folks on this site? I understand that there's a wide variety of socio…

- Chesky: Working for 4 years before founding AirBnB.

- Andreesen: Dual-income family, though details about his parents are scant.

- Jobs: Dual income family at a time when the vast majority of families had a single income.

- Wozniak: Engineers make a lot of money.

- Page: Professors do too

- Brin: Father is professor at University of Maryland, Mother is a researcher at NASA's Goddard.

- Koum: Had been working in industry for 15 years before starting his own company.

So yes, most people in the US have backgrounds much worse than this.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#148

Post by nostrademons »

akg_67 wrote: post #143
nostrademons wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few examples of startup founders who were potentially homeless if it failed (AirBnB is the obvious one...they started it because they were literally a month away from being homeless), but you're right, this is the exception rather than the rule. I think what's frequently overlooked in the "how do I get the resources to found a startup without risking everything?" is that you don't do it in one shot . If y…

> AirBnB is the obvious one...they started it because they were literally a month away from being homeless How much of this statement is real and how much is just a marketing narrative put together afterward to make project look better or humanize? I see this over and over in every segment. I laugh every time I read that an investment/asset manager claims to had a paper route or lemonade stand and.or bought 1 stock a…

I suspect the answer is "Yes" and "Yes", but I wasn't there for AirBnB's founding so I don't know for sure. It'd be interesting to get mwseibel's perspective on this because he was there, at least once the company got into YC.

Anyway, you bring up a good point about facts vs. narrative, and how we weave a narrative around the facts that puts a particular spin on it. Among startup founders I do personally know - they seem to be essentially randomly-sampled from the top half of the income distribution. There are not many who were outright poor (although you can always find exceptions), but a lot who come from middle-class backgrounds, many more than those who come from upper-class backgrounds. It's not really that startups are a game for the 1%, it's that they're a game for the 50%.

I'd also like to counterpoint that the same distinction between facts vs. narrative happens when people explain their own life stories. Many people take the facts of their life and then weave them together as "well, if only I were born rich, things would be very different". This is trivially true, but also not really a narrative I find useful; I would much rather focus on the things that I can control having made my life what it is, rather than the things out of my control.

Re: Why Should I Start a Startup?

#150

Post by emmett »

taurath wrote: post #77

I do find it rather hilarious that he dropped interest in yale for being too academic, but during my (failed) interview as a web developer at Twitch about 5 years ago, the questioning had to do with only academic subjects like graph traversal algorithms - they proudly stated when I applied that 90% of their employees come from an Ivy league background. Here's who I think should start a startup: - People with the back…

FWIW Michael wasn't at Twitch. He was at Justin.tv, our precursor. By the time you applied, if you applied to Twitch, you were 6 years post-founding and Michael had left.

I do believe you were asked graph traversal algorithms in the interview. I might have asked the question myself, though by the time we had pivoted to Twitch we had mostly stopped asking those questions. It was very early on and we were still pretty bad at interviewing though, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Additionally, if someone told you 90% of our employees came from an Ivy league background, they were lying to you. I'm actually very proud of the fact that we've hired broadly across the educational backgrounds. That's simply untrue, and I have no idea who would have said it.

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