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After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

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Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#171

Post by robertlagrant »

motorest wrote: post #140
vjk800 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you never take big swings and big risks and are happy with small wins and stable growth you'll never win the big prize. You don't win the big price either by taking the big swings. I mean, some people do, but they are so few that they can be considered a rounding error. Maybe the economy wins when one-in-a-million business unicorn appears, but I don't make any of my other life choices by considering the global e…

> On the one hand, sure. On the other hand this relentless focus on "hyper-scale" or bust is what has pushed the US startup scene to where it is and probably why it is so far ahead of the rest of the world. I don't agree. I think this is specious reasoning fueled by a mix of cargo cult mentality and survivorship bias. Just because a hand full of startups made it all the way through to a unicorn status, and some where…

I don't think any of this is the case, and you haven't really said why. Focusing on winning big is absolutely not survivorship bias. Everyone in the 100m is aiming to be the fastest human on earth, but only one will win. That's not survivorship bias. Throwing fallacy names as insults is still just insults.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#172

Post by robertlagrant »

confidantlake wrote: post #135
dagw wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American startup culture is so weird On the one hand, sure. On the other hand this relentless focus on "hyper-scale" or bust is what has pushed the US startup scene to where it is and probably why it is so far ahead of the rest of the world. If you told most European startup founders that in 5 years you'll have plateaued at 15-20 employees, a steady income flow, and you'll be paying yourself $200-250k a year, they'd…

I would argue it is less healthy for the economy. Large companies are very good at extracting value, not necessarily producing it.

Unless large companies can intercept cash before it's paid to you and take some of it, they are only getting value from providing value.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#173

Post by robertlagrant »

ccppurcell wrote: post #143
fourseventy wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you use an iPhone to type this?

Everything apart from the look of the iPhone is value created by publicly funded organisations, with the exception of the transistor which was developed by at&t. And at&t were effectively a government sponsored monopoly at the time. So apple extracted value, I would argue.

Publically funded means "paid for out of taxes skimmed off value created by private citizens and private corporations". The value was extracted from people by taxes. It was reused into something useful for people by Apple.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#174

Post by robertlagrant »

jedrek wrote: post #163
dagw wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American startup culture is so weird On the one hand, sure. On the other hand this relentless focus on "hyper-scale" or bust is what has pushed the US startup scene to where it is and probably why it is so far ahead of the rest of the world. If you told most European startup founders that in 5 years you'll have plateaued at 15-20 employees, a steady income flow, and you'll be paying yourself $200-250k a year, they'd…

This is the problem with VC culture: it's not funding good, sustainable ideas, it's basically betting.

If you can see the future you can become the best VC ever. If you can't, you're no better than VCs.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#175

Post by gwbas1c »

Hendrikto wrote: post #118

> While we gained some traction with some startups, we ultimately weren't able to build a hyper-growth business. […] We then decided to pivot into a vertical B2B SaaS AI product […, but] we haven't been able to find enough traction to make us believe that we were on the right track to build a huge business. American startup culture is so weird. Not everything needs to be a hyper-scaler, not everything needs to be hug…

> and not shut down after 2–3 years after pivoting three times.

An important part of running a business is taking a risk.

Furthermore, plenty of businesses fail for reasons that have little to do with the economic value / needed functionality of the product. In some cases, it takes a similar company with subtle differences (or even timing) to really understand why one business failed and a different succeeded.

(One very bad example could be the difference between Sega and Nintendo in the 1980s and 1990s. Compare the NES to the Master System, the SNES to the genisis, and the Game Boy to the Game Gear.)

(Another example can come from comparing Tesla to the dozens of other electric car startups.)

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#176

Post by robertlagrant »

meiraleal wrote: post #164
dagw wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American startup culture is so weird On the one hand, sure. On the other hand this relentless focus on "hyper-scale" or bust is what has pushed the US startup scene to where it is and probably why it is so far ahead of the rest of the world. If you told most European startup founders that in 5 years you'll have plateaued at 15-20 employees, a steady income flow, and you'll be paying yourself $200-250k a year, they'd…

> On the one hand, sure. On the other hand this relentless focus on "hyper-scale" or bust is what has pushed the US startup scene to where it is and probably why it is so far ahead of the rest of the world. was it? Or the inability of other countries to block US startups (because the US government will never let them) makes it impossible for local startups to compete leading to monopolies? If every country went US wa…

Your statement seems to assume that non-US startups are intrinsically worse than US ones. Why is that?

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#177

Post by freehorse »

dagw wrote: post #124
Hendrikto wrote: post #118

> While we gained some traction with some startups, we ultimately weren't able to build a hyper-growth business. […] We then decided to pivot into a vertical B2B SaaS AI product […, but] we haven't been able to find enough traction to make us believe that we were on the right track to build a huge business. American startup culture is so weird. Not everything needs to be a hyper-scaler, not everything needs to be hug…

American startup culture is so weird On the one hand, sure. On the other hand this relentless focus on "hyper-scale" or bust is what has pushed the US startup scene to where it is and probably why it is so far ahead of the rest of the world. If you told most European startup founders that in 5 years you'll have plateaued at 15-20 employees, a steady income flow, and you'll be paying yourself $200-250k a year, they'd…

> a SV VC straight up say that if you consider selling your company for $50 million a win, the you don't have the right mindset

This makes sense from a VC perspective, but not from a founder perspective (for most).

> it's bad for the Economy

Economy != VCs' pockets

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#178

Post by anonu »

Hendrikto wrote: post #118

> While we gained some traction with some startups, we ultimately weren't able to build a hyper-growth business. […] We then decided to pivot into a vertical B2B SaaS AI product […, but] we haven't been able to find enough traction to make us believe that we were on the right track to build a huge business. American startup culture is so weird. Not everything needs to be a hyper-scaler, not everything needs to be hug…

> American startup culture

American VC-backed startup culture, you mean. And yeah, that makes sense. If you put money into something you expect to get paid back in 5 years. You need growth to do that.

If you want to go slow, then you bootstrap your startup.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#179

Post by badpun »

dagw wrote: post #124
Hendrikto wrote: post #118

> While we gained some traction with some startups, we ultimately weren't able to build a hyper-growth business. […] We then decided to pivot into a vertical B2B SaaS AI product […, but] we haven't been able to find enough traction to make us believe that we were on the right track to build a huge business. American startup culture is so weird. Not everything needs to be a hyper-scaler, not everything needs to be hug…

American startup culture is so weird On the one hand, sure. On the other hand this relentless focus on "hyper-scale" or bust is what has pushed the US startup scene to where it is and probably why it is so far ahead of the rest of the world. If you told most European startup founders that in 5 years you'll have plateaued at 15-20 employees, a steady income flow, and you'll be paying yourself $200-250k a year, they'd…

> And while this might be healthier for you as an individual, it's bad for the Economy.

... an while it's bad for the economy, it may be good for the country. Notice how Europe doesn't have regular school shootings, rampant crime or 100k people a year killing themselves with Fentanyl. It may have something to do with culture that prioritizes other things besides the economy.

Re: After 3 Years, I Failed. Here's All My Startup's Code

#180

Post by realce »

robertlagrant wrote: post #171
motorest wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On the one hand, sure. On the other hand this relentless focus on "hyper-scale" or bust is what has pushed the US startup scene to where it is and probably why it is so far ahead of the rest of the world. I don't agree. I think this is specious reasoning fueled by a mix of cargo cult mentality and survivorship bias. Just because a hand full of startups made it all the way through to a unicorn status, and some where…

I don't think any of this is the case, and you haven't really said why. Focusing on winning big is absolutely not survivorship bias. Everyone in the 100m is aiming to be the fastest human on earth, but only one will win. That's not survivorship bias. Throwing fallacy names as insults is still just insults.

The 100m is not a sustainable model for a nation or world's economy. Everyone needs to eat, not just the single individual who runs fastest.
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