181–190 of 1001 posts
It also really helps to build up a following and be well known.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was an engineer at a successful startup. We grew, we went bankrupt, we laid off most the company, the founders kicked in enough to keep us going and we restructured to give the remaining people larger shares. We became profitable and finally sold to another company. My payday was about $70k, which was a nice bonus, I was happy to get it. I moved on to big tech. The company withered away, the company that bought it…
You listed the less-important parts of that story. The important part was what your start-up offered, how it helps the world, and whether the product(s) and the technology went on to be used by many people/organizations or not...
There was interesting work on crawling and search, we went bankrupt trying to provide useful tools for people to find different products and the different places to buy them, then became profitable farming our content out for SEO.
We were then bought out by a domain parker who wanted to marry our monetization with his traffic; as far as I know it didn't work, but that was when I left.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with a life style business to begin with, the negative stigma is there only because certain VCs feel that you are a horrible person for not cutting them in on the action so they can diversify their portfolios.
This . I really dislike the term "lifestyle business". What's wrong with a stable long-term business that makes founders and customers happy? Why does every business need GROWTH GROWTH GROWTH at all costs, even if the result is a net negative for customers? I sometimes explain to customers that if my business were VC-funded, it would grow and be developed much faster, but in the end there would need to be an exit and…
This advice is the exact opposite of the wisdom in the rest of the post.
I’d say it’s okay to give up. If someone has a long term miserable life thanks to building their startup, then perhaps consider doing something that makes you more happy. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Entrepreneurship is a rich man's game. Notice that almost all of the guys who made it big come from wealth, and had the money and the contacts to lean on to make their product a success. I'm sorry you got caught out by the charlatans who hype up entrepreneurship and sell people lies about success. Please don't blame yourself, this isn't your fault, you were hoodwinked by false prophets.
That IMO puts you into a position where failure is all but impossible. As others have pointed out luck also has a part to play. But if you've got family financially supporting you (or at least able to bail you out) you will succeed eventually.
How exactly do you do it when you're smart enough to be on here but don't come from that kind of background? Are you just supposed to accept it?
Finally I sold out to the dark side (consulting). The money is decent and the job is something I can forget when I clock out. Not being able to retire early will be my own fault for chasing the dream for too long, had I switched sooner it would still have been a possibility.
Failing can be a good thing, it forces you out from something that's not working.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What rate is the cutoff at which people give up entrepreneurship altogether? I wonder how big has the opportunity cost of monopolies been in the past decade
> Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something. > Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on. > Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel…
It is hard.