Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

17 years old, 11 startups

markbao.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 89 posts

Re: 17 years old, 11 startups

#41

Post by axod »

acqq wrote: post #14
axod wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that you can start companies at any stage of life. You can start a company age 50, and probably have far more chance at success based on your extra knowledge. However, you can't really go to night clubs, chase girls, play dirt bikes etc age 50.

> you can't really go to night clubs, chase girls, play dirt bikes etc age 50. I guess you're not older than, let's say, 25?

FWIW, I'm 32. I guess you can go chasing girls in night clubs when you're older, but it's way easier to do that stuff when you're young.

Similarly it's possible for people to wait until their 40s to have kids, but I'd say it's far easier to have them when you're young and have the energy.

Re: 17 years old, 11 startups

#43

Post by vishaaall »

Excellent, I really admire such young prodigies and all. Points that come to my mind upon reading it, [x] The likes of Bill Gates,Steve jobs,Larry Page,Warren Buffett and all did like 1 startup. You can easily achieve 25 by age what 40. [x] I never saw any webpage created by them advertising there personality.

But again you are only 17.

Re: 17 years old, 11 startups

#44

Post by ilovecomputers »

aik wrote: post #36
ilovecomputers wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hold up a second, he needs to go to college first where he risks being bogged down by details that will distract him and possible crush all his dreams, but if he pulls through, he will rise with a new sense of understanding that have lead all the great contributers of society.

It's sad how often comments about higher education are expressed in a light like this. Contact me if you have ideas on how to fix it.

I'm not criticizing higher education. My tongue-in-cheek comment was a reference to the book The Man Who Knew Infinity where G H Hardy expressed fear that teaching Ramanujan the details of math might stump his genius by making him feel less confident in his abilities.

I'm also expressing my frustration of not writing down my life goals when I first entered college...but even if I went back in time and asked my younger self what those goals were: "Intern at Revision3!? Man, you think you have it all figured out. I don't know how else to say this man, but..."

and I just made myself feel sad, in a nostalgic way.

Re: 17 years old, 11 startups

#45

Post by shashank261 »

markbao wrote: post #25
axod wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that you can start companies at any stage of life. You can start a company age 50, and probably have far more chance at success based on your extra knowledge. However, you can't really go to night clubs, chase girls, play dirt bikes etc age 50.

Thanks for mibbit :) Somehow I still manage to fit in time for everything. [x] going to nightclubs [x] chasing girls (though at this stage a big waste of time, seriously) [x] dirt bikes [x] video games ...

Thanks, Mark. You have answered my question.:)

Re: 17 years old, 11 startups

#46

Post by axod »

psaintla wrote: post #26
axod wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that you can start companies at any stage of life. You can start a company age 50, and probably have far more chance at success based on your extra knowledge. However, you can't really go to night clubs, chase girls, play dirt bikes etc age 50.

Richard Branson agrees completely, going to clubs, chasing girls, and dirt biking is too immature at 50. Girls chase him to go to his private island and do this: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/20/article-1171739-04...

I think Branson may not typify the average human ;)

Re: 17 years old, 11 startups

#47

Post by csomar »

bluelu wrote: post #24
pclark wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are you joking? how is building and releasing this many products ever a bad thing?

If you give up too quickly, and don't focus and create too many applciations?

Come on, he's only 17. Why do he needs to focus? He was just doing this for fun. As he grow, he'll have more the sense of business and the will to make money/create a company and will focus on one product.

Nevertheless, this will give him varied experience that will improve his choice and selection later.

Re: 17 years old, 11 startups

#48

Post by markbao »

jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #38

I know Mark well and we even worked together on Genevine for a bit. He's one of the brightest people I know. Seriously, he gets things done fast and understands business along with tech. They're mostly projects, he knows the distinction as shown below in a comment. It's great to build things and tinker. Eventually one of them makes sense to you, takes off a bit, a bigger vision presents itself, and you turn it into a…

Really appreciate the kind words, Jason. Thanks :)

Some thoughts: one pretty important metric for determining whether it's a startup or not is ramen profitability. Not when the project owners' livelihood depends on the project, but when it can depend on the project if needed. However, the caveat is when it isn't profitable at all but still considered a startup (like when a lot of time and money is put in but it hasn't entered that stage), in which case the determination is more murky. Thoughts?

Re: 17 years old, 11 startups

#49

Post by csomar »

axod wrote: post #11
lachyg wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who says he doesn't do all of that? And also, where riding dirt bikes and playing basketball is your idea of fun, his may be programming, running startups and doing bizdev.

I'd say that you can start companies at any stage of life. You can start a company age 50, and probably have far more chance at success based on your extra knowledge. However, you can't really go to night clubs, chase girls, play dirt bikes etc age 50.

Considering that he has a business and therefore money, he's very likely to be able to do all these things and better than his peers.
Post reply on HN