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Startups in 13 Sentences

paulgraham.com

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Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#41

Post by fauigerzigerk »

user wrote: post #20

I have a great admiration for PG. But PG sometimes creates a false reality for those young kids of becoming millionaires some day with their startup. But the truth is most of them would be heartbroken when they realize that is not always possible. I hope some of you realize this and don't waste precious life and be happy. I hope I made sense.

The question is whether trying and failing to become a millionaire by doing something interesting makes you more unhappy than not trying.

If the difference between expectations and reality is what makes us unhappy, then lowering aspirations to zero is what would make everybody happiest. I don't believe that it would.

Creating the impression that it is possible to be sucessful with your own startup cannot be false reality. Possibility is never reality, and founding a startup isn't taking part in a ponzi scheme. Some people being successful doesn't lower the odds of others to be successful as well.

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#42

Post by neilc »

nostrademons wrote: post #38
cperciva wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone with a Ph.D that has the work ethic to run a startup ought to be worth at least a couple hundred grand a year in industry. Ah, but that requires a completely different work ethic. To an academic, living on ramen while solving interesting problems is far more interesting than getting rich. Ideas tend to become better when they're bounced off multiple people That's what users are for. :-)

To an academic, living on ramen while solving interesting problems is far more interesting than getting rich. But if that's your goal, then likely that will be what your startup gets. Interesting problems, few customers, and not much money. There're lots of Ph.D-founded startups in that category. My previous employer was one. Symbolics is another high-profile example. Lots we haven't heard of, since they're working o…

Lots we haven't heard of, since they're working on interesting problems and not getting rich.

Partly because "we" (HN) are biased toward consumer-facing web startups, which are typically not the sort of companies started by academics, or people with extensive knowledge of a non-web industry. There are many startups out there that "we haven't heard of", but still end up solving valuable problems, and quite a few of them get rich as a result.

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#43

Post by gstar »

user wrote: post #20

I have a great admiration for PG. But PG sometimes creates a false reality for those young kids of becoming millionaires some day with their startup. But the truth is most of them would be heartbroken when they realize that is not always possible. I hope some of you realize this and don't waste precious life and be happy. I hope I made sense.

Why do you need to be a millionaire though? I think working for yourself, on (mostly) your own terms on your own product that you're passionate about is more meaningful than the box you might one day tick next to millionaire.

There's no risk in failure either, you can always go and work for someone else, and personal bankruptcy isn't _THAT_ bad.

I don't think PG is giving anyone false hope that they'll hit the lottery - he's just offering an alternative. And as everyone has said tons of times before, your chances of making a million by starting your own business are orders of magnitude higher than winning the lottery.

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#44

Post by rustartup »

cperciva wrote: post #7

I have check marks next to 8 of these, and I'm working on a 9th (ironically, #9 -- "Get ramen profitable"); but I've broken 4 of these rules, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Rule #1 -- Pick good cofounders. I picked no cofounders, based largely on the fact that that I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. (Ok, that's being a…

There seems to be some confusion among the HN user about the actual starup definition. Many people call a startup even outside projects and websites made for fun.

PG says "The essential task in a startup is to create wealth", that pretty well rules tarsnap out as a startup, I guess.

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#45

Post by divia »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #27
cperciva wrote: post #7

I have check marks next to 8 of these, and I'm working on a 9th (ironically, #9 -- "Get ramen profitable"); but I've broken 4 of these rules, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Rule #1 -- Pick good cofounders. I picked no cofounders, based largely on the fact that that I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. (Ok, that's being a…

I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. Quality is a vector, not a scalar. What's the average of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak? I don't think that's a meaningful question. But the vector sum of their skills was a startup with amazing technical and artistic skill, product focus, business aspirations, charisma, and salesmanship. And I'…

I learn that it's even better than that: You're the FreeBSD Security Officer, which presumably involves a great deal of practical expertise in reviewing and fixing insecure software.

cperciva has a bit of a history of surprising people with his credentials: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#46

Post by trapper »

cperciva wrote: post #37
prakash wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe you don't need a co-founder but at least a contractor/employee to take care of this and all the other things you might not have had the time to take care of?

Quite possibly. If I was going to hire one person to do some contract work, I'm pretty sure that it would be a web designer. Most likely I'll do this myself, though -- even aside from the issue of money, I find that doing tedious things like web design myself (a) is a useful learning experience, and (b) allows me to think about issues a bit more clearly.

You need a cofounder who can take care of the ramen goal so you can focus on what you love best. The point of your business isn't to do it all yourself, it is to do something you love. If you find founders with complementing skill sets, it's win win win.

I would say you could easily get a web/design/biz cofounder who could dramatically change your ramen and also enjoy a few of those tasks you have been putting off for a while :).

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#47

Post by veteran »

vaksel wrote: post #5

seems like we've heard all of this before

I agree..what will be useful is long thoughtful analysis, case studies around such points that expose nuances of decision making and evolution of ideas/business models and not copycat lists which assume there is some sort of formula in the start up success..

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#48

Post by veteran »

brlewis wrote: post #8
vaksel wrote: post #5

seems like we've heard all of this before

I've heard similar things, but not exactly that you should favor completely satisfying a small number of people over partially satisfying a large number. That directly affects decisions I'm making now.

careful..in getting carried away by this advice though..unless your product targets large enough market you would not get opportunity to experiment/fail and succeed so yes start the inferno by targeting small niche but don't be esoteric unless you are going to get premium for being exclusive..

Re: Startups in 13 Sentences

#50

Post by brlewis »

veteran wrote: post #48
brlewis wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard similar things, but not exactly that you should favor completely satisfying a small number of people over partially satisfying a large number. That directly affects decisions I'm making now.

careful..in getting carried away by this advice though..unless your product targets large enough market you would not get opportunity to experiment/fail and succeed so yes start the inferno by targeting small niche but don't be esoteric unless you are going to get premium for being exclusive..

The feature requests I'm getting now are not esoteric. They aren't exactly "needs" either. I don't know how much the "make few love you" rule applies to satisfying wants rather than needs. But as I prioritize making existing users very happy vs fishing for a larger number of users, pg has certainly given me food for thought.
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