31–40 of 43 posts
Based on a lot of data, I'd say he's right. It's harder to work on an ambitious idea, but not proportionately harder.
It depends on your life circumstances. I think it's easy to choose an ambitious startup once you have a success under your belt, and aren't worried about paying the bills (ie. have a small exit/cushion already). On the other hand, if you still got to pay the bills, and have a family, it makes sense to pursue a smaller idea that doesn't require $10 million in venture capital, or a team of 20 people. You say that you c…
You're right. And all of this is nonsense anyway. The people who encourage all this risky behavior aren't going to be there to clean up the mess when you fail and can't pay your bills. And passed up your chance to go to Harvard to do YC.
It pays for them to encourage you to take big risks and encourage big ideas. And they will pick from those risks and if 2 in 10 are a home run then they win big. They are spreading the risk over many ideas (you're only doing one idea) and they are risking other peoples money in general. (Sure they have reputation and other worries but not the same as your loss.)
My guess is, and this is only a guess, that when they evaluate an idea they don't take into account at all what will happen to the founder of the big ambitious idea when it fails. It probably doesn't even enter into the decision to fund the idea or not.
It's like encouraging a friend to go to Hollywood and follow their dream to become a star. If they succeed you have a friend who's a Hollywood star. If not no loss on your part.
I always say: Think big. Plan in meticulous detail. Then shelve your plan and just do it. Come back to your plan a year later and see how you are doing. Business plans are great exercises for thinking through issues. However, don't let it stop you from picking up on important opportunities down the road. Prepare a new plan every year. Again, don't look at it during the year.
It depends on your life circumstances. I think it's easy to choose an ambitious startup once you have a success under your belt, and aren't worried about paying the bills (ie. have a small exit/cushion already). On the other hand, if you still got to pay the bills, and have a family, it makes sense to pursue a smaller idea that doesn't require $10 million in venture capital, or a team of 20 people. You say that you c…
"On the other hand, if you still got to pay the bills, and have a family," You're right. And all of this is nonsense anyway. The people who encourage all this risky behavior aren't going to be there to clean up the mess when you fail and can't pay your bills. And passed up your chance to go to Harvard to do YC. It pays for them to encourage you to take big risks and encourage big ideas. And they will pick from those…
The funny thing is even when people present the ambitious ideas they are laughed at. let me try again. I have a big idea to take on the banking system, yes the banks.launched the MVP 2 weeks ago not wanting to be too ambitious at the beginning. Have two more features to add that will really challenge them. Plus we already know at this point that banks don't care about the disappearing middle class. http://www.cnbc.co…
Marc Andreessen posted the following comment on Gabriel's blog. "Great post -- this is what my partner Ben and I have always believed. Starting a company is just plain hard. It's not clear that starting an ambitious company is any harder than starting a less ambitious company. Your points on market size and being attractive to the ecosystem (particularly talented employees) are dead on. The other thing we find is tha…
Marc Andreessen posted the following comment on Gabriel's blog. "Great post -- this is what my partner Ben and I have always believed. Starting a company is just plain hard. It's not clear that starting an ambitious company is any harder than starting a less ambitious company. Your points on market size and being attractive to the ecosystem (particularly talented employees) are dead on. The other thing we find is tha…
That's only true if you're following the "build to flip" model. Many supposedly companies all around the world become successful businesses by focusing on a problem that is perhaps less ambitious, but makes money.
For most startups, if I understand correctly, the founders get rich on a liquidity event - either the company getting sold or IPO'ing.
So eventually you are going to flip, if things go well, right? Or go public in the rare but usually better outcome.
Anyway this is Andreessen's view. I work on a "smaller problem" right now. :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"On the other hand, if you still got to pay the bills, and have a family," You're right. And all of this is nonsense anyway. The people who encourage all this risky behavior aren't going to be there to clean up the mess when you fail and can't pay your bills. And passed up your chance to go to Harvard to do YC. It pays for them to encourage you to take big risks and encourage big ideas. And they will pick from those…
I got my current job largely by the fact that I had a failed startup on my resume.
It also depends on how long you spent doing the startup and the opportunity cost of doing so. It's one thing if it takes a 6 month chunk out of your life and another thing if it takes a 5 year period. And prevented you from doing something else.
Each circumstance is different of course.
Based on a lot of data, I'd say he's right. It's harder to work on an ambitious idea, but not proportionately harder.
Sure it may not be harder to work on an ambitious idea than to start an Italian restaurant (or the startup equivalent - something that is ubiquitous and stands a good chance of succeeding if executed correctly).
But although I acknowledge that the possibility of hitting it big from opening the "restaurant" is small compared to an ambitious idea, the chance of the restaurant succeeding and being an ongoing concern is magnitudes greater than the ambitious idea.
The simple fact is non ambitious ideas don't pay off for investors and that's why investors are biased to not encourage those types of ideas.