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How Universities Should Prepare Founders

paulgraham.com

261–270 of 333 posts

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#261
post #61

I don’t necessarily disagree with this but is it the universities job to prepare founders at the expense of everyone else? Under his proposal the motivated founders succeed and everyone else is a loser. This is a very VC focused lens that ignores all the other possible outcomes a human could pursue that are valuable. Established corps need workers, unis need new teachers, hospitals need doctors, etc. So we should let…

[deleted]

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#262
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So we should let all those people suffer to promote a small group of founders by reducing course load? Yes, that is pretty much VC enterprenour philosophy in nutshell. It is value system that value only one small group only. And if that small group has to put in effort into learning in school or doing something other then building unicorns, that is a great unfairness.

> Yes, that is pretty much VC enterprenour philosophy in nutshell. It's time we all admit the VCs are the best people, and we're just worthless in comparison. Anyone with any value at all is an investor or a founder. No one else matters. That's why neo-reactionary ideology is so profound: it would put those best people in charge, and clear all the useless garbage out of their way.

The libertarian take is surely exactly this, with the elitism either stripped out or pushed into the background (depending on your political bent): rather than employees and employers everyone should be a founder of their one-person company that raises money to do things that align with the interests of other individual founder-investors.

Mind you, I'm not totally sure how this differs from employer/employee relationships in practice except I suppose that each side has less contractual protection from the other.

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#263

I am more interested in the question of how Y-Combinator has changed Stanford over the last two decades rather than the question of how Stanford should change to accommodate Y-Combinator. Notice there is no mention of ethics, philosophy, or human connection, except maybe Zuck being a psych major. Do we really want the future of education to be an incubator pipeline? That said I wholehearted agree with the second half…

I had a similar thought... starting a business is risky. And health insurance (among other things) is expensive. Once the VC class starts pushing for health care reform (among other things), maybe I'll take what they want seriously.

Younger founders coming out of college are somewhat insulated from health insurance concerns. Many of them can remain as a dependant on a parent's employer sponsored group plan until age 26. Others are eligible for Medicaid due to relatively low cash income. Once a startup reaches the Series A funding stage, the larger VC funds have existing arrangements with commercial health insurers to offer group coverage.

I do agree that we need healthcare coverage reform but don't expect a lot of political pressure from that particular group.

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#264
post #109

My university prepared me to be a founder by making me so unemployable that starting a business was my best option.

I don't think there's much value in college anymore outside of as a class signifier, and most schools are signifying that you are not in the right social class.

I don't think that's true at all, although the roles which falsify it are generally invisible to or (as you can see downthread) looked down upon in Internet discourse. You do well at your local state school, you join whichever company's hiring near you as a low-level analyst, and with a bit of luck and hard work maybe you make it to Senior Manager of Regional Operations by the time your second kid is born. This is a valuable career path which many people are happy with and proud of.

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#265
Whatever about specifically founding tech companies to generate a pipeline for SF VCs, universities should be in the business of preparing people to live their lives with agency.

You don’t need to raise VC money to live your life, but if you become an accountant, a mechanical engineer, or an artist, you should also have the skills you need to go and set up a business to do that work wherever you decide to go.

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And if possible for way, way, way less money. Enough universities in Europe that do this. I am thinking of studying maths at the German distance university. I forgot the name. It would mean that I neef to speak good German. I might just do that too

That would be the FernUni Hagen: https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/english/ > The FernUniversität in Hagen is Germany’s only state distance-learning university, and its largest in terms of student numbers. Its flexible degree programs and continuing education options make higher education accessible to students in a variety of life situations. Its five faculties conduct a wide range of theoretical and applied research in…

That’s the one!

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Academic studies and knowledge are literally a worthless waste of time Not everything is about money

Compared to the investments of investors who invest, literally nothing is as important as VCs in the world, not even doctors! Like what would humans even be without money? Probably poor, and who wants to be poor?

ok ok, I get it now, it's satire ^^'

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#268
post #61

I don’t necessarily disagree with this but is it the universities job to prepare founders at the expense of everyone else? Under his proposal the motivated founders succeed and everyone else is a loser. This is a very VC focused lens that ignores all the other possible outcomes a human could pursue that are valuable. Established corps need workers, unis need new teachers, hospitals need doctors, etc. So we should let…

[deleted]

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#269
I have been thinking alot about which jobs are obsoleted by AI.

I think VC’s are probably at the top of the list next to software developers.

The old VC bargain is trading ten engineers for a year or so for controlling interest in the company. The goal is to get some sort of signs of life for investors at the end of the runway.

Early phase can just be AI on the engineering side. Sure, you need a driven software engineer founder to guide the AI, but if the goal is move fast and break stuff, then build a demo, that’s about all you need. Figure that’s a few hundred thousand for seed.

Now, for series A, you could sell controlling interest, or slice off a small release that produces a ~ $1M ARR, then use that to hire a few folks, and bootstrap.

Are there any co-op style incubators encouraging this? I just described a lonely (but capital efficient) path.

Re: How Universities Should Prepare Founders

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> VC funded YC company taught me more ... really is a bit of a Neo in the Matrix moment ... ends up making you a 10x more effective corporate worker if that’s where you end up No doubt there are learnings worth a lifetime, and changes that alter careers. You hope, the sense of superiority the experience seems to breed is not merely a coping mechanism, but an exercise in positive self-image [0] [0] https://news.ycombi…

“the sense of superiority the experience seems to breed” Mostly an extremely online problem, not a real world one. More so the nature of the medium in fact. Evidenced by how you edited out the “dead” in front of VC funded when you were quoting me. You read the tone you want to read.

> Mostly an extremely online problem

Do consider re-reading my comment after a while.

> You read the tone you want to read.

Please, don't gaslight.

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