@3:12: "There are much easier ways of getting rich." Could I get some examples? Thank you!
I had a few of those moments where I found something really interesting and wanted to hear more detail, but then the subject just changed.
Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
31–40 of 191 posts
Re: Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
#32I've been watching it for 8 minutes as of now and despite the fact that the content looks good it really bores me to death that he is reading the whole thing like a robot. It does not sound like a natural converstation or presentation. Does anyone else share this feeling?
Not at all.
Re: Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
#33Dustin talks about Financial Reward and Impact of "why to do a startup" for examples like Facebook and Dropbox here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBYhVcO4WgI#t=2161 Are these values correct? If you join Dropbox as employee #100 with 10bp, you're 10bp is going to get massively diluted through subsequent rounds, no? Isn't it more like $1-2mil? And also this is wealth on paper, which means that you don't all of the s…
Based on the holdings disclosed at the time of Facebook's IPO, and even accounting for the rise in the company's stock, I doubt very much that employee #100 at Facebook is sitting on $200 million in gains from his or her options or RSUs. In the case of Dropbox, looking at what the Box founders own according to Box's S-1[1] probably provides a more realistic comp.
One thing worth noting is that Dustin's slide apparently fails to take into account the cost of exercising options. You can absolutely make a lot of money at a startup, and you don't even need to be one of the earliest employees to do so, but today's valuation trend works against employees. Startups are raising money at significant valuations earlier and earlier, so even early employees aren't receiving cheap equity.
As an example of this, consider that Facebook had sold shares at a $15 billion valuation just three years after the company was founded. Google went public at a valuation under $27 billion (edit: corrected). If you had your choice, you'd almost certainly have received a better equity package as an early rank-and-file employee of Google versus Facebook.
[1] http://fortune.com/2014/03/25/aaron-levie-owns-more-of-box-t...
Re: Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
#34Don't get me wrong I love Sam Altman I love y-combinator but a small part of me is thinking that a good first step to start a startup is to not watch that video and find your own way. Not because it's probably not great but because a startup is not a formula. Your path is your own.
I agree, however since he has seen and dealt with so many startups he gets to notice a lot of patterns about what makes startups more likely to be successful than the average person. There was definitely some valuable info in the lecture.
Re: Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
#35@2:22: "You may still fail. The outcome is something like Idea x Product x Execution x Team x Luck, where Luck is a random number between 0 and 10,000, literally that much." What does that mean? I'm not trying to rip on the video or anything like that, but am genuinely curious as to how much luck Sam Altman thinks is involved in a startup.
That simply means if you are extremely unlucky (e.g. luck being 0, like being hit by a bus), then all the other factors don't matter. On the other extreme, extreme luck can turn your company around even if you don't do so well on the other parts.
Re: Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
#36Don't get me wrong I love Sam Altman I love y-combinator but a small part of me is thinking that a good first step to start a startup is to not watch that video and find your own way. Not because it's probably not great but because a startup is not a formula. Your path is your own.
I agree, however since he has seen and dealt with so many startups he gets to notice a lot of patterns about what makes startups more likely to be successful than the average person. There was definitely some valuable info in the lecture.
I am pretty sure you are right. Whether that value is intellectual or actionable is what I am not so sure about :)
Re: Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
#37Don't get me wrong I love Sam Altman I love y-combinator but a small part of me is thinking that a good first step to start a startup is to not watch that video and find your own way. Not because it's probably not great but because a startup is not a formula. Your path is your own.
I agree. It strikes me as a very inefficient use of an enterpeneur's time who wants to launch a business to first watch a series of 20 lectures about all aspects of starting a business. Just start doing it, and whenever you get stuck or need feedback ask someone whose expertise you trust for advice on a particular issue you're dealing with at that moment.
Perhaps it's not the most efficient use of an entrepreneur's time, and I agree that it definitely doesn't have to be the first step. Working on an idea helps you learn fast, but there was so much I didn't know at first (I still have a lot to learn). I am so grateful that resources like this exist, and I expect this one by YC to have a higher density of quality info in the time spent watching lectures.
Re: Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
#38On Sam's part -- am I the only one who got the "heard this before" feeling? Obviously he attributed everything pretty appropriately, but I thought I could've placed 50-75% of his sentences in the "Summary" sections of various PG essays, Peter Thiel writings, and other luminaries of the startup-sphere.
I'm not saying it was wrong or that his delivery was bad. But I remember reading the Class Notes from Thiel's class after Blake made them available and thinking "Wow, there's some original thoughts in here I haven't come across before."
Maybe it's because PG already put it all to paper, and some of these other figures just added post scripts. Maybe it was a solved problem by the time Sam got a seat at the table. Just some food for thought. Looking forward to the other lectures regardless.
Re: Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
#39Dustin talks about Financial Reward and Impact of "why to do a startup" for examples like Facebook and Dropbox here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBYhVcO4WgI#t=2161 Are these values correct? If you join Dropbox as employee #100 with 10bp, you're 10bp is going to get massively diluted through subsequent rounds, no? Isn't it more like $1-2mil? And also this is wealth on paper, which means that you don't all of the s…
Based on the holdings disclosed at the time of Facebook's IPO, and even accounting for the rise in the company's stock, I doubt very much that employee #100 at Facebook is sitting on $200 million in gains from his or her options or RSUs. In the case of Dropbox, looking at what the Box founders own according to Box's S-1[1] probably provides a more realistic comp. One thing worth noting is that Dustin's slide apparent…
When Google went public the valuation was ~$23 Billion (they raised just under $2 billion in the IPO) [1]. However to your point this was around 6 years after founding, whereas Facebook was valued at ~15 billion by Microsoft in 2007, 3 years after it was founded.
I had a friend who turned down a job at Facebook in late 2008 because he felt the 15 billion valuation was very high and it limited his upside. And before about July '13 when FB's stock started a huge rise, this was pretty correct thinking.
There is also still a problem with all of this revisionist valuation stuff for a company like Facebook. It only would be worth some obscene amount if:
a) you got a generous stock option package when you joined
b) you stayed with the company until the IPO (so you could actually both have a chance to sell your stock and pay the exercise costs)
c) you didn't sell until right now after the stock has massively appreciated in the past year.
And even still you are going to be paying regular income tax on all of that gain which is going to be around 50% if you live in California.
[1]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14939-2004Aug...
Re: Lecture 1 – How to Start a Startup [video]
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree, however since he has seen and dealt with so many startups he gets to notice a lot of patterns about what makes startups more likely to be successful than the average person. There was definitely some valuable info in the lecture.
I am pretty sure you are right. Whether that value is intellectual or actionable is what I am not so sure about :)
I found it was more "here's what you should notice" than "here's what you should do".