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Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

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Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#51

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

leonroy wrote: post #10

One thing to note is that 'young college drop out makes billions' is a more compelling story than 'middle aged, well educated person with good savings makes billions'. The former sells more clicks and hence advertising dollars - it conjures the notion that anyone can do it. The latter suggests at least a decade of work experience, probably an education and some money. It's clear which story is going to end up trendin…

> 'young college drop out makes billions'

> 'middle aged, well educated person with good savings makes billions'.

Do we know if anyone has A/B test these two headlines?

Finding fault with middle-aged-well-educated-person-with-good-savings*, who became a billionaire in under 10 years, shouldn't be too hard for the media, and therefore plenty of things to whip up a scandal about.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#52

Post by jstandard »

sanderjd wrote: post #43
jknoepfler wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can certainly concede that achieving "ramen profitability" while living off savings is substantially less exciting while trying to pay down a mortgage and save up for one's childrens' college tuition.

> while trying to pay down a mortgage I don't really get this. I just recently bought a house. Paying down my mortgage is just a bit more expensive than renting my apartment was. Leases are a year long, I think I could sell my house within that period of time, and we wouldn't need to ask our landlord's permission. Why is a mortgage strictly worse for living off of savings?

> Paying down my mortgage is just a bit more expensive than renting my apartment was.

Unless you already have a substantial nest egg or took out an expensive mortgage, your life savings were substantially reduced by the down payment. In addition to a more expensive monthly payment there are property taxes, maintenance costs ($ and time), HOA fees, and other burdens depending on your region and property type.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#53

Post by jknoepfler »

ghufran_syed wrote: post #47
jknoepfler wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can certainly concede that achieving "ramen profitability" while living off savings is substantially less exciting while trying to pay down a mortgage and save up for one's childrens' college tuition.

Any reason why the kids can’t pay for their own tuition? Isn’t that what government student loans are for?

no, there isn't. I personally paid my way with loans and work, but I wouldn't mind paying a portion of a public university education for my children. Remember you generally end up cosigning loans, so if your kid flakes out, you're on the line anyway.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#54

Post by shubhamjain »

jknoepfler wrote: post #24

I honestly can't understand why this would shock anyone with experience in engineering. As a senior developer, I'm vastly more able to realize ideas than I was even three years ago. I also know vastly more. I'm able to understand cutting-edge systems and language research that I couldn't before. I'm able to design systems quickly and more reliably. I'm able to separate good ideas from bad ideas more reliably. I'm bet…

I think you're missing the bigger point. Most people work on problems that they've seen or experienced. For the young, it tends to be dating, social media, or some sort of e-commerce. They chase trends and hype. When you gain experience, you get exposed to an entirely different set of problems—problems with workflow, business processes, and general efficiency. Problems where you can deliver real value.

This was brilliantly expressed in this blog post [1]. Both the young and the old, stand at a disadvantage. Experienced folks have a better idea about worthy problems, but they're shackled with liabilities and lack of time commitment. Young people have a lot more freedom, but they don't have a good idea about the problems that are worth it.

[1]: http://000fff.org/the-problem-with-problems/

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#55

Post by montrose »

If this result is surprising to HN readers, it is probably because this list of the last 100 IPOs is also surprising:

https://www.iposcoop.com/last-100-ipos/

Only 19 of the 100 most recent IPOs are classified as "technology" companies. The rest are in categories like "health care" and "oil and gas."

There are a lot of high-growth companies that are not startups in the classic sense of starting from nothing and winning by building a better mousetrap. E.g. pharmaceutical companies commercializing research, where the founder is a PI and probably a tenured professor who's at least 40.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#56

Post by TeMPOraL »

ghufran_syed wrote: post #47
jknoepfler wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can certainly concede that achieving "ramen profitability" while living off savings is substantially less exciting while trying to pay down a mortgage and save up for one's childrens' college tuition.

Any reason why the kids can’t pay for their own tuition? Isn’t that what government student loans are for?

Isn't saving for kids' college an American tradition?

Also, it seems that in the US, student loans are a pretty heavy burden to take on.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#57

Post by TeMPOraL »

gitgud wrote: post #42
leonroy wrote: post #10

One thing to note is that 'young college drop out makes billions' is a more compelling story than 'middle aged, well educated person with good savings makes billions'. The former sells more clicks and hence advertising dollars - it conjures the notion that anyone can do it. The latter suggests at least a decade of work experience, probably an education and some money. It's clear which story is going to end up trendin…

'young college drop out makes billions' *Translates to: "someone made a lot of money + no effort required!"

"... just one weird trick. Maybe I can do that too! I should read this article - maybe some parts of the secret are revealed in it."

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#58

Post by TeMPOraL »

tibbetts wrote: post #35
volgo wrote: post #27

I think there's a little bit of confirmation bias mixed with a bit of jealousy toward younger developers. The fact is, technology doesn't really matter that much to the success of a business. Business sense, ability to spot what's next, and a fair bit of risk taking attitude are what matters. Older engineers don't fare better than younger engineers in starting a business not because they're worse at engineering, but…

Weapon design is all about government contracts, which generally require experience. Even Iron Man was using his dad’s existing corporate vehicle. Advanced AI usually depends on finding a business model, which requires experience. And places like Deep Mind were started by researchers who had been at it a few decades.

I have the feeling weapons design & manufacturing looks the way it looks because the advanced countries aren't really fighting and expecting to fight any serious war with each other. This makes it safe for the contractors to suck excessive amounts of money from the government while delivering very little, and for the whole endeavour to become one big political battlefield.

War was always the thing that connected humanity to physical reality - 2+2 may very well be 10000 on the procurement document, but it'd better equal 4 when you're trying to aim your cannons at the invading forces. With no war, effectiveness (and thus good engineering) is no longer a strong criterion for success of a weapon design.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#59

Post by thebradbain »

ghufran_syed wrote: post #47
jknoepfler wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can certainly concede that achieving "ramen profitability" while living off savings is substantially less exciting while trying to pay down a mortgage and save up for one's childrens' college tuition.

Any reason why the kids can’t pay for their own tuition? Isn’t that what government student loans are for?

Federal Direct Student Loans, available to undergraduate students at a relatively low fixed rate (but still higher than say, a decent mortgage on a house), only allow a student to take out about $6000/year.

But as college tuition skyrockets (mine is $70k/year, and increasing, and I have a brother at an equivalently priced institution too!), that wont cut it. The rest must either come from personal/family finances, be taken out from the federal government in solely the parent’s name (Federal Direct Plus Parent Loan, with a higher interest rate than direct student loans) or, if that’s not an option, a private lender (usually with an even higher rate).

With circumstances like they are and pitiful stopgaps like these, it’s no wonder my parents waited so long to have children so that they could afford to send them to school. Unfortunately, that’s not an option for most families. The student loan crisis in America really is terrifying.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#60

Post by deepGem »

codazoda wrote: post #28
sleet wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree but there's probably a limit on that sentiment. If you start a family you are likely to become more risk adverse, this would increase again as you approach retirement.

True, but ~45 may be a golden age again. By then your kids may be starting to becoming self sufficient, retirement is still 20 years off, and you've lived through a fair number of financial problems. Your retirement plans might be coming together and the world is starting to look more rosey. Plus, you find yourself feeling like you're nearing the end of your "youth"; you're aged but you still feel good. Perhaps you b…

I more or less left full time work when I was 39 to pursue startups. The reasoning was exactly on the lines of what you have described. It's been 2 years and the journey has been fraught with failures. One, it's become really hard for me to find a co-founder. Almost none of the guys in my friend circle are willing to take the risks associated with startups. I've attended a pre-accelerator to find a co-founders but haven't had any luck in finding the right person. Two, I'm just getting lazy because of the financial cushion. I mean, it's not much but still some sort of lethargy has set in since I don't have a pressing problem to solve. Until I get to the stage where things kick off, I bet this is going to be the norm. On one hand I have a financial cushion, on the other I know that the cushion won't mean much in the next 10 years. So, I'm constantly thinking about self sufficiency down the line. So, a combination of no cofounder + no exponential idea + procrastination = My life has become quite miserable. I mean, sure on the surface I project an image of it's all good, if you know what I mean.
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