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Why to Not Not Start a Startup

paulgraham.com

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Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#61

Post by Goladus »

ced wrote: post #50
Goladus wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your reason for working on hard AI problems at Google? Not a rhetorical question. One reason to worry about how my site renders in Safari is that I know people use Safari and if my site doesn't work for them they won't use my site. There's a thrill that comes when people enthusiastically approve of your work. Also I know my site will be higher quality and more valuable if it renders in safari. The more valuab…

"AI problems at Google" is just an example. I find hard technical problems interesting. A problem is hard if I don't know in advance whether or not I will be able to solve it. AI is hard. Making a good OS is hard. Startups avoid hard problems, because they have enough things to worry about already. I'm not saying the job at Google with Peter Norvig (ah) is perfect. I was just pointing out another reason why I'm hesit…

I agree, I love working on hard problems. Sort of. What I've found is that I tend to make decisions for a variety of reasons, and am most decisive when I have a either broad convergence of motivation, or a singularly powerful one.

If you're asking yourself wether to pursue a job at google or starting a startup, you'll want to try enumerating as many reasons as you can for each one. You won't likely get a definitive answer, but the excercise will get you thinking about what other things are important to you. If you're lucky, one will turn up to be the obvious choice.

In my case, I have slid technically to the point that preparing for one is the same as preparing for the other.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#62

Post by Goladus »

LongInTheTooth wrote: post #53
ced wrote: post #39

Hypothesis: "I'd rather work on hard AI problems at Google than create a startup and bitch about how Safari is not rendering my site properly." What do you think? I haven't tried either, but working on cool problems ought to be worth something. Most startup work seems rather mundane.

Other posters show an inability to engage in a sufficient level of abstraction. Original post is an interesting question that has nothing to do with AI, Google, or Safari. The point is that at a startup (especially the two guys and a laptop variety) you do absolutely everything yourself, while at a big company you are supported by IT, QA, custodial services, etc, etc. The interesting question is whether there exist j…

Yes that is the interesting question, but how do you answer it?

By enumerating what you want and comparing that with the support and restriction a steady job offers.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#63

Post by dougo »

BrandonM wrote: post #60
dougo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you kidding me? You have to make things the people on your thesis committee want. There's only 4 of them, but you have to have 100% satisfaction.

That may be true, but you can work for 5+ years at a problem, fully supported by your university, without having to worry about pleasing anyone in the short term. There is no need to worry about releases or fickle customers. And in the end, success is virtually guaranteed. So I would have to agree that grad school is more "friendly" than starting a startup, where you have to start worrying about the viability of your…

It's true that you don't have to prove yourself after the first semester of grad school, but there are many "release"-like hoops you have to jump through in those 5+ years. The main one is your thesis proposal. I also had to do a plan of study a couple years before that; nowadays, my school (Northeastern) instead makes you publish a paper (and you're encouraged to publish multiple papers). There's also all the things your advisor asks you to do as his research assistant, which isn't always directly connected to your thesis work.

Your adviser, committee members, and conference/journal reviewers are all "fickle customers". And these aren't customers who came to you because they want your product, these are more or less assigned to you and you're stuck with them (unless you change departments or schools). It's true that you get a stipend, but I'm not sure that counts as "full support". And while the drop-out rate is obviously lower than the startup failure rate, it's far from zero.

Still, I agree that grad school is less scary than a startup. But don't think it's not all about pleasing others, with many non-trivial deadlines and constraints.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#64

Post by AurSaraf »

rikard wrote: post #40

What if I'd like to accomplish something, like building an operating system or a world wide web, and don't really care about the money. What if I just want to change the world. Should I start a company and if so why?

Hello. My name is Aur Saraf.

If you want to change the world, you have two ways to do it:

1) By force - in this case, don't do it. Waste of energy on anti-productivity.

2) By creating something people REALLY REALLY want (like your examples) - in that case, yes. Create a company. Find someone as enthusiastic as you. If you create something people want, money will come.

Email me for details, I'm a gmailer and my nick is SonOfLilit.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#65

Post by lkozma »

dougo wrote: post #59
lkozma wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grad school is more friendly only in the sense that you are not constrained to make things that people want.

Are you kidding me? You have to make things the people on your thesis committee want. There's only 4 of them, but you have to have 100% satisfaction.

I meant you don't need to make something people genuinely want, as it would solve a problem they have. You have to prove to the committee that you put in a decent amount of effort, but that's about it.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#66

Post by ecuzzillo »

lkozma wrote: post #65
dougo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you kidding me? You have to make things the people on your thesis committee want. There's only 4 of them, but you have to have 100% satisfaction.

I meant you don't need to make something people genuinely want, as it would solve a problem they have. You have to prove to the committee that you put in a decent amount of effort, but that's about it.

Correction (as above): It's true that you don't have to make something people want at all in many fields (c.f. theoretical math), but many in engineering probably use it to make something people just don't want immediately enough for you to get funding and make a product before said funding runs out.

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#67

Post by sanderbilt »

Here's my big question for Paul, and for everyone. How does one afford to start a startup? Does everyone do it by eating Ramen and maxing out their credit cards? Wouldn't you hear about more people who had their life left in ruins with $50k in debt when their website went under? I'm not talking about the cost of running and developing your business. I'm merely worried about rent, food, and Health Insurance!

I work a day job and am diligently developing multiple startup ideas with a few friends, but these will obviously never get off the ground until we quit our jobs. How do you do this without massive savings for six months or a year? What if you don't become profitable for 2 or 3 years?

My best solution so far has been to trick myself and go back to get my MBA this fall. I can live off loans and spend all my free 'college' time developing our sites. I've had a lot of entrepreneurs tell me that this is a bad decision, and that I should just quit and go to town on the web.

Could someone please suggest some means that would allow me and my fellow co-founders to do this?

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#68

Post by AurSaraf »

sanderbilt wrote: post #67

Here's my big question for Paul, and for everyone. How does one afford to start a startup? Does everyone do it by eating Ramen and maxing out their credit cards? Wouldn't you hear about more people who had their life left in ruins with $50k in debt when their website went under? I'm not talking about the cost of running and developing your business. I'm merely worried about rent, food, and Health Insurance! I work a…

the Y combinator is an answer to this exact question

Aur Saraf

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#69

Post by BrandonM »

dougo wrote: post #63
BrandonM wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true, but you can work for 5+ years at a problem, fully supported by your university, without having to worry about pleasing anyone in the short term. There is no need to worry about releases or fickle customers. And in the end, success is virtually guaranteed. So I would have to agree that grad school is more "friendly" than starting a startup, where you have to start worrying about the viability of your…

It's true that you don't have to prove yourself after the first semester of grad school, but there are many "release"-like hoops you have to jump through in those 5+ years. The main one is your thesis proposal. I also had to do a plan of study a couple years before that; nowadays, my school (Northeastern) instead makes you publish a paper (and you're encouraged to publish multiple papers). There's also all the things…

Good points. I had some of them in the back of my mind, but I think that I was subconsciously trying to forget about all that :).

Re: Why to Not Not Start a Startup

#70

Post by philc »

count0 wrote: post #42

Greate article. But I have the impression that PG means "to start starup is to launch a web application". right?

Not necessarily, but building a web app turns out to be a good way to build a product. He wrote about some advantages of doing so here- http://www.paulgraham.com/road.html
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