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Stop Looking for a Cofounder

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Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#151

Post by CPLX »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #135
CPLX wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making a million dollars a year on average is, in fact, great, by nearly any non-delusional standard.

Please don't label those that disagree with you delusional. The guy probably has personally guaranteed loans, and running a low margin business where things can swing against you hard is no fun at all. We are incredibly lucky in the software world. I'd take a steady 200k over the picture painted by op, and given the skills required to build such a business and the time investment, I'd agree that's not great.

Believing that having more than twice what it takes to make it in the top 1% of U.S. income is "not great" and that a major lifestyle compromise is to make 5x the average U.S. income for a family of four both strike me as symptoms of a delusional view of wealth and income in the society you presumably are a member of.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#152

Post by adrianmsmith »

GamblersFallacy wrote: post #145
rcarrigan87 wrote: post #22

Too many people who are new to entrepreneurship only see startups as their entry point. Part of this is media coverage, everyone is talking about funding mega rounds and the VC fueled entrepreneur world. I think many entrepreneurs are less interested in building Billion dollar companies and are more seeking freedom from suppressive corporate jobs. But when the only narrative you see is mega startups it starts to seem…

Important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years all share a fundamental structure, e.g. "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" The general narrative of "entrepreneur" is singular, not plural. Entrepreneur folklore is the individual (hero) fighting against the collective (culture). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces "The hero starts in the ordinary world, and receiv…

I'm not sure myths can be trusted. I'm sure many people, when they think of Microsoft's founding, think of Bill Gates. And of Apple's, Steve Jobs. But neither were single founders.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#153

Post by reitzensteinm »

CPLX wrote: post #151
reitzensteinm wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't label those that disagree with you delusional. The guy probably has personally guaranteed loans, and running a low margin business where things can swing against you hard is no fun at all. We are incredibly lucky in the software world. I'd take a steady 200k over the picture painted by op, and given the skills required to build such a business and the time investment, I'd agree that's not great.

Believing that having more than twice what it takes to make it in the top 1% of U.S. income is "not great" and that a major lifestyle compromise is to make 5x the average U.S. income for a family of four both strike me as symptoms of a delusional view of wealth and income in the society you presumably are a member of.

I reject your premise. The situation is nothing like having a million dollar salary. You are discounting risk, past and present. It's all fun and games until a financial crisis makes you bankrupt via your personally guaranteed loans.

Plenty of people on this site can make 200k contracting, and in terms of risk and return on investment, that's a way way way better position to shoot for.

Now, do those people having 200k have it great? In my view they do. But you are doing simplistic analysis of the situation and labeling dissent as delusional. That's cheap and why I replied.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#154

Post by trg2 »

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #54
jchendy wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know of any resources to learn about tech lifestyle businesses?

The entrepreneur sub-reddit frequently has posts from guys who are starting or trying to start online lifestyle businesses. It's somewhat hit or miss. But if you check it every few days you can find some real gems. Some of the businesses really open your eyes to ways to make money online. The narratives are much less about massively disruptive, world changing startups and much more about making a good living through…

http://www.tropicalmba.com/best-of-tmba/

http://www.dynamitecircle.com/

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#155

Post by eloff »

graeme wrote: post #150
eloff wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PlentyOfFish was the biggest example I can think of, but companies like that are very rare. It's also strange. If you have a successful company, why wouldn't you try to grow it and hire employees? Maybe if you're more interested in keeping things simple than in making more money.

>Maybe if you're more interested in keeping things simple than in making more money. Yup, that's exactly my own motivation. I've set mine up to run fairly automatically. Obviously it needs oversight and growth. It just doesn't need them right away. So if I want to take a couple weeks off, I can. And I don't have to hold that many details in my head/when working I can hold more longer run details in my head. I value t…

Sure, that's valid reasoning. If your goal is optimizing your personal happiness, you don't need that much money. The extra stress will easily compensate for the extra money and you'll be worse off.

But a word of warning, make sure it's not because you're afraid of taking things to the next level. Adding employees (rising costs) and moving into more of a managerial role is something many engineers are afraid of on some level. Additionally, all humans are afriad of change to some degree. Make sure you really understand what motivates you.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#157

Post by GamblersFallacy »

adrianmsmith wrote: post #152
GamblersFallacy wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years all share a fundamental structure, e.g. "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" The general narrative of "entrepreneur" is singular, not plural. Entrepreneur folklore is the individual (hero) fighting against the collective (culture). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces "The hero starts in the ordinary world, and receiv…

I'm not sure myths can be trusted. I'm sure many people, when they think of Microsoft's founding, think of Bill Gates. And of Apple's, Steve Jobs. But neither were single founders.

The foremost function of mythology is to establish models for behavior, not historical accuracy.

Notice the hero worship surrounding founders who's business had a near death experience, e.g. Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#158

Post by graeme »

eloff wrote: post #155
graeme wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Maybe if you're more interested in keeping things simple than in making more money. Yup, that's exactly my own motivation. I've set mine up to run fairly automatically. Obviously it needs oversight and growth. It just doesn't need them right away. So if I want to take a couple weeks off, I can. And I don't have to hold that many details in my head/when working I can hold more longer run details in my head. I value t…

Sure, that's valid reasoning. If your goal is optimizing your personal happiness, you don't need that much money. The extra stress will easily compensate for the extra money and you'll be worse off. But a word of warning, make sure it's not because you're afraid of taking things to the next level. Adding employees (rising costs) and moving into more of a managerial role is something many engineers are afraid of on so…

Heh, not an engineer. And I do use contractors. For me it's really about those four freedoms.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#159

Post by dboreham »

jcrubino wrote: post #30
dboreham wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My response whenever I hear the "life style" label is to ask who's life style are we talking about? For me, the only difference is that in the traditional VC startup case it is the life style of the VCs that is being enhanced.

They hedge your risk of time and effort by giving you resources of capital, networks, IP to make things happen plus a bonus if the startup gets traction enough for a public offering or profitable exit sale. There are many devils in the details but getting paid to do something you are committed to completing is not a bad offer.

I think I may not have made my point sufficiently clear: I'm well aware of the mechanics of VC funding. I wasn't talking about that, but rather specifically the label "lifestyle company". VCs tend to use the term as a pejorative, implying that a person who owns a business should not seek to improve their lifestyle. My observation is that the difference between the self-funded and VC-funded scenario, as regards "lifestyle" optimization is only who's lifestyle is being optimized (the business owner in one case, the VC and their investors in the other case). The VC isn't going to give up their fancy Sand Hill offices and the Tesla any more than the self-funded entrepreneur is going to give up their quality time with their kids and family.
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