21–30 of 146 posts
I'm interested in startup idea patterns, Care isn't one I've seen or heard before. Are there any examples of startups using this pattern and succeeding?
What about all these corner grocery stores? They could be out saving the world, fighting malaria, going to mars, but what are they doing? Selling groceries. What a bunch of assholes.
Corner grocery stores don't fluff the press with stories about changing the world and grand visions.
As someone who is outside of SF looking in, to me the whole startup culture there seems utterly insane. To me, it seems as though there is some kind of reality distortion field that convinces us all that no matter what we is being worked on or created, it is in some way world changing or "disruptive", despite how stupid it is, or how viable a market there is for what is being made. The funny thing is, organizations t…
When it inevitably, eventually implodes, nothing of lasting value will be lost.
This may be a silly question, but why do we think that SV startup mentality must solve every problem? Like the article states, there are lots of "big" problems, like homelessness, healthcare, and inequality. These are usually the realms of government and non-profits. While some of these are startups or institutions with novel ideas / methods, I'm not sure that entrepreneurship solves everything. I'm just not sure you…
Bottom line: people believe what they want to believe, most of the time.
As someone who is outside of SF looking in, to me the whole startup culture there seems utterly insane. To me, it seems as though there is some kind of reality distortion field that convinces us all that no matter what we is being worked on or created, it is in some way world changing or "disruptive", despite how stupid it is, or how viable a market there is for what is being made. The funny thing is, organizations t…
It's all about people who've seen how absurdly rich you can get, and want a piece of that. That's all there is to it. The rest is window dressing and empty words to facilitate an IPO, selling the company, or hitting that lucky lottery win in some other way. When it inevitably, eventually implodes, nothing of lasting value will be lost.
That about sums it up. If people suddenly became rich through farming, you'd see people flocking to the mid-west. A lot of people claim a higher calling or passion for tech, but it's mostly just dollar signs in their eyes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's all about people who've seen how absurdly rich you can get, and want a piece of that. That's all there is to it. The rest is window dressing and empty words to facilitate an IPO, selling the company, or hitting that lucky lottery win in some other way. When it inevitably, eventually implodes, nothing of lasting value will be lost.
It's all about people who've seen how absurdly rich you can get, and want a piece of that. That about sums it up. If people suddenly became rich through farming, you'd see people flocking to the mid-west. A lot of people claim a higher calling or passion for tech, but it's mostly just dollar signs in their eyes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, so you're optimizing and not innovating .
Actually no. I'm making the software that did not previously exist. Others down the road can then use it to produce better performing products. Passive aggressive word games aside, you really can't compare "reducing the global need for oil" to "snapchat for cats".
You dismiss twitter, snapchat clones, whatever when they do deliver actual value to people just because they don't meet some arbitrary feelgood measure of "innovative". A measure that coincidentally happens to somehow make your cute little tool worldchanging! Industry, especially in mech and AEC, is hilariously slow to change workflows once they have something that works. Your product is probably going to get lost in the noise, all with you puttering around going "but but but I was innovating! Why don't people support innovation?!".
You're coming off as a holier-than-thou "srs bsns" engineer when you should have some humility. Maybe post under your real account.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually no. I'm making the software that did not previously exist. Others down the road can then use it to produce better performing products. Passive aggressive word games aside, you really can't compare "reducing the global need for oil" to "snapchat for cats".
Like, what special sauce do you bring to the table that ANSYS or Solidworks or whatever FEA package people use for optimization studies doesn't already do--and probably do well enough? You dismiss twitter, snapchat clones, whatever when they do deliver actual value to people just because they don't meet some arbitrary feelgood measure of "innovative". A measure that coincidentally happens to somehow make your cute li…
>Maybe post under your real account.
I have no real account. I always make a new one every few posts partly for privacy reasons, and partly because I enjoy reading posts like your own. :^)
Let’s not forget that Elon Musk’s first company was a site that made city guides for newspapers. It’s much easier to start companies that solve small less impactful problems first, and then move onto the big important ideas. I think the problem is that a lot of the low hanging fruit has been picked. It’s pretty hard for a CS student out of college to tackle a healthcare problem with no experience in the matter..
A variant of this, start with a small chunk of a big problem then move with the users to the problem they identify.
Financial technology is rapidly expanding in the city as well, and only the older players in that space have substantial ties to traditional Uber For _____ startup VC firms. Companies like Tally that are genuinely trying to change the relationship. Even big companies like Capital One (my employer) are moving into SF to recruit and acquire because it's where we can recruit the top talent away from people bored on working on Adtech.
There are LOTS of great places to work, not just in the Peninsula & Valley of California but all over the country. SF is just nice because it's a small city with a high density of tech jobs. But I hate to see it defined by the well-publicized caricature of the startup scene. Honestly, it bothers me enough to lead me to bad decision about it.