If you want to start a startup, go work for someone else

Post by inthewoods » Sun, Sep 07, 2014, 1:40 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #89

inthewoods wrote: post #88

I've got a full time job, and I've done startups - both are obviously valuable. A friend of mine approached me recently with the idea of doing a startup - but he didn't have any ideas. He wanted to do consulting in his chosen space to find that idea. My problem with this is that, in my mind, it doubles the risk - you have go into consulting (which is not risk free), then hope you find an idea. There is then additiona…

Consulting isn't all that risky depending. I never made as much money as when I was part of a consulting partnership. But the work was less glamorous/interesting. Mostly solving legacy system problems (where by definition companies might have lost their expertise and have to call in an outsider). At least a startup is always new and fresh, at least with a good product. That's why I gave up on consulting (that and the…

Post by graeme » Sun, Sep 07, 2014, 3:12 PM UTC

Bahamut wrote: post #63

graeme wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My favorite statistic was the 18% of entrepreneurs succeed the first time, and only 20% succeed the second time. This is a potentially misleading stat. The second cohort only includes the failures. So clearly at least some of them learned something. It's a 36% total success rate for entrepreneurs who try twice. (Though I guess that number is missing those that try once and don't try again)

Who's to say that the 36% one is not a potentially misleading stat? Assuming the 18%/20% stats are correct, it is a 34.4% success rate from the 18% and 20% stat. The 36% stat may not be out of the realm of possibility with the difference in values here - there may be context missing from all the numbers cited here. They don't seem to disagree with each other significantly though.

Post by kvee » Tue, Sep 09, 2014, 6:48 AM UTC

Xodarap wrote: post #38

kvee wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it has something to do with the idea that 3% of YC applicants have a 100% chance of getting an interview. If you follow PG's ethos perfectly maybe you choose to work at a great startup that is going to succeed and then you start your own. Work at Justin.tv, and then start Twitch/ZeroCater

I would disagree with the causality. The sort of person who can get an influential job in a top-tier startup is probably also the sort of person who can start a good company.