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Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

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Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#61

Post by tlogan »

wellboy wrote: post #57

You can gain more "experience" before you try to do your own thing, however the more experience you gain, the worse you become at creating the next billion dollar startup. For every year that you don´t start your own business, your capability to think large and taking risks and your resourcefulness dramatically declines. That´s the reason why none of the four horsemen in tech, Google, Apple, Amazon or Facebook were f…

Good point but it could also that very talented people are so bored with their 9-to-5 job and they will be bored to death if they are forced to wait till their 30s to start their own company.

On the other hand, not so talented people (like me) might need a little of learning before jumping into entrepreneurship.

The trick is that when you are in 20s you might be either stupid or super intelligent but you will not know that.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#62

Post by jasonwatkinspdx »

This is an important point, but it also shouldn't be overstated. There are many examples of where professional managers lacking passion and personal interest in a business's market have hindered more than helped.

As Thiel often says a variety of ways, copycat behavior is unlikely to produce success in a high risk/reward context like a startup. You need an information advantage, and often that advantage is someone who knows their own itch very well.

I also hate that the meme for this has become "adult supervision." It's such a patronizing and self-aggrandizing description.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#63

Post by wellboy »

tensor wrote: post #60
wellboy wrote: post #57

You can gain more "experience" before you try to do your own thing, however the more experience you gain, the worse you become at creating the next billion dollar startup. For every year that you don´t start your own business, your capability to think large and taking risks and your resourcefulness dramatically declines. That´s the reason why none of the four horsemen in tech, Google, Apple, Amazon or Facebook were f…

This is abhorrent ageism, and completely wrong. Peter Thiel, 31, Paypal, 37, Palintar. Larry Elison, 33, Oracle. Reid Hoffman, 35, Linked In. Evan Williams, 35, Twitter. Mark Pincus, 41, Zynga. Arianna Huffington, 54, Huffington Post. Can we stop making things up? Maybe five minutes of research would be good? You know, there is a place they teach these things.

Founders that had had successful startups before don't count.

That's why I was referring to "experience BEFORE you try to do your own thing."

And yes there are a few startup founders that were older than 30, I give you Larry Ellison.

However none of the 4 horsemen had founders >30, plus the other founders except for Peter Thiel had already sold their previous startups.

Regarding Palantir, they had Peter Thiel as a cofounder, I don't give you that one.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#65

Post by wellboy »

tlogan wrote: post #61
wellboy wrote: post #57

You can gain more "experience" before you try to do your own thing, however the more experience you gain, the worse you become at creating the next billion dollar startup. For every year that you don´t start your own business, your capability to think large and taking risks and your resourcefulness dramatically declines. That´s the reason why none of the four horsemen in tech, Google, Apple, Amazon or Facebook were f…

Good point but it could also that very talented people are so bored with their 9-to-5 job and they will be bored to death if they are forced to wait till their 30s to start their own company. On the other hand, not so talented people (like me) might need a little of learning before jumping into entrepreneurship. The trick is that when you are in 20s you might be either stupid or super intelligent but you will not kno…

You don't need experience to start a startup, you get the experience by doing a startup.

And you don't get the BS experience in big companies, you get it in its purest form from the market itself, not compromised by any company politics BS.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#66

Post by seiji »

UK-AL wrote: post #59
seiji wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked under multiple managers who: gave no positive feedback, set no expectations, and provided no treats. That's really the minimum you should do with dogs or people.

"gave no positive feedback" "provided no treats" Seriously? If you try to control people pain and reward system, most people see through it and hate you for it. You want them to have a innate feeling of accomplishment. You completed something difficult? And that felt good. You don't need cookies from a master for that. The number one thing you need to do, is set something up which they can measure themselves against.…

The world isn't full of self-involved creatives who just want to create to create. Most people like being rewarded (money), promoted (power), and growing in their positions (knowledge).

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#67

Post by seiji »

UK-AL wrote: post #58
seiji wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a company let's children be managers without any prior experience or training, the company should force all their child prodigies to at a minimum read http://www.amazon.com/Great-Danes-Barrons-Dog-Bibles/dp/0764...

That's just plain offensive. If you start trying to command people like you command dogs, people are just going to disrespect you. You will have no power. People don't react to pain/rewards like dogs do. They see through it instantly.

They see through it instantly.

You vastly overestimate the competency of people.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#68

Post by tensor »

wellboy wrote: post #63
tensor wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is abhorrent ageism, and completely wrong. Peter Thiel, 31, Paypal, 37, Palintar. Larry Elison, 33, Oracle. Reid Hoffman, 35, Linked In. Evan Williams, 35, Twitter. Mark Pincus, 41, Zynga. Arianna Huffington, 54, Huffington Post. Can we stop making things up? Maybe five minutes of research would be good? You know, there is a place they teach these things.

Founders that had had successful startups before don't count. That's why I was referring to "experience BEFORE you try to do your own thing." And yes there are a few startup founders that were older than 30, I give you Larry Ellison. However none of the 4 horsemen had founders >30, plus the other founders except for Peter Thiel had already sold their previous startups. Regarding Palantir, they had Peter Thiel as a co…

Again, you may want to do some research. Many of those I listed are first time founders. Your attitude mirrors the also incorrect idea that scientists must make their name before 30. That too, was studied and found to be completely wrong.

I can only assume that this attitude comes from arrogant young people who want to think they are special.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#69

Post by wellboy »

wellboy wrote: post #63
tensor wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is abhorrent ageism, and completely wrong. Peter Thiel, 31, Paypal, 37, Palintar. Larry Elison, 33, Oracle. Reid Hoffman, 35, Linked In. Evan Williams, 35, Twitter. Mark Pincus, 41, Zynga. Arianna Huffington, 54, Huffington Post. Can we stop making things up? Maybe five minutes of research would be good? You know, there is a place they teach these things.

Founders that had had successful startups before don't count. That's why I was referring to "experience BEFORE you try to do your own thing." And yes there are a few startup founders that were older than 30, I give you Larry Ellison. However none of the 4 horsemen had founders >30, plus the other founders except for Peter Thiel had already sold their previous startups. Regarding Palantir, they had Peter Thiel as a co…

I don't want to be ageist or anything, I just like discovering facts.

Except for Peter Thiel who was 31, 1 year above, only Larry Ellison is a first time founder, all the other ones where very successful before.

Huffington Post is not a billion dollar company, since it was acquired for US$315 million by AOL 2 years ago.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#70

Post by npalli »

wellboy wrote: post #57

You can gain more "experience" before you try to do your own thing, however the more experience you gain, the worse you become at creating the next billion dollar startup. For every year that you don´t start your own business, your capability to think large and taking risks and your resourcefulness dramatically declines. That´s the reason why none of the four horsemen in tech, Google, Apple, Amazon or Facebook were f…

Additional data points:

Jeff Bezos over 30 when he started Amazon

Marc Benioff 34 when he started Salesforce.com

Peter Thiel was 32 when he took over Paypal (his first startup)

Adobe founders were over 40

Cisco founder was over 30

Intel founders were close to 40 when they started the company

All are huge companies worth tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars.

Even Apple first iteration was 90 days from bankruptcy when Steve Jobs (aged 42) took over. At this point, his startup NEXT was not very successful.

You seem to think $1B is some gigantic amount in the grand scheme of things. If you step beside tech, there are hundreds of examples. Take the example of Chobani yogurt. Started by a 33-year-old Turkish immigrant in 2005, the founder is a billionaire today. Companies started by founders older than 30 is the norm and will become so in tech too. Only in tech this foolish idea keeps persisting that only people under 30 do big things.

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