Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
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Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
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Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#2An enjoyable description of tech companies, small & medium, that make money for the founders but don't exit big.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#3Entrepreneurship overall isn't about the exit, but VC-backed technology startups are very likely about the exit. To me, entrepreneurship is the chance to build something that people want, the chance to lead and the chance to have a voice in one's own destiny.
Corporate jobs often don't offer those things. You usually build what others tell you to build, follow orders and have little voice in your own future.
Can you imagine if the team at 37 Signals had corporate jobs? They wouldn't be rock stars, they'd be cube-dwellers with no blog, no chance to make big changes, with vague titles like "Lead Web Designer" or "Enterprise Architect." David Heinemeier Hansson wouldn't be known as the designer of RoR, he'd be that kid who came up with the non-corporate-standard framework that got mothballed after he was laid off. The people left would complain when they got assigned to port his weird "Ruby" apps over to Struts.
Entrepreneurs, from the person who opens a McDonald's franchise to an Ivy Leaguer seeking millions in VC want more or less the same thing, and for them an "exit" is often just icing on the cake.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#4That's probably the best written TC article I've ever seen.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#5If you don't have a business model, it's definitely just about the exit. Or maybe the funding rounds.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#6"If you don't have a business model, it's definitely just about the exit. Or maybe the funding rounds."
Which is what most of these web based companies are about.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#7Basically what this article is talking about are two breeds of entrepreneurs:
1. Lifestyle business guys like the ones featured in the article
2. Big exit guys who are after the Forbes cover, the big IPO / acquisition, the VC funding, etc...
There's merit to both styles of entrpreneurship; style #2 obviously brings with it a lot more stakeholders (employees, investors, etc...) and therefore a lot more responsibility and accountability on the part of the entrepreneurs / founders, but the potential rewards reflect that.
Style #1 doesn't have all of the fame and glory, the 8-9 figure exits, but it creates a self-owned source of income which can be really liberating. The trick with a lifestyle business is to make your operation lean enough so you don't have to hire a tremendous number of people to run the business.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#8That's probably the best written TC article I've ever seen.
I would definitely have to agree on this. As much as I am open to the possible "lifestyle business" examples given, I would still think about scaling the business to a level similar to SAS if given the opportunity (I applaud them for recently being the #1 company to work for). And by the time the exit is done, I should hopefully have the experience and fiduciary resources to start another company.
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#9I've been having that corporate vs self-funding dilemma for a while now. I am part designer, part entrepreneur, part programmer. I enjoy doing all these activities, and I do them with desire. I have an idea
which would improve designers life and I think I might have figured out working business model. More importantly, it's very hard to get me doing something I find either illogical or immoral.
I have been reading HN for a while, follow 10+ blogs from VC-world and read whole bunch of books about successful startup founders and although I find corporate sponsorship great for some sectors (biotech, hi-tech hardware, some IT where founders are born programmers and not entrepreneurs) I've come to a conclusion that if I was to seek founding from either VC or Angel investor, I'd be giving away my freedom to experiment, my freedom to work in a pace and rhythm as I'd like and all the fun that would come with. That's was the whole point about being an entrepreneur, right? Doing the stuff you like / world needs and supporting yourself to a point? And who would guarantee me that investor knows more about my sector than I do?
Re: Is Entrepreneurship Just About the Exit?
#10I have a different model of exit that is my goal. To create companiesnthatncan run without my daily involvement. Then repeat.
I currently am a partner in an LLC that owns two retail stores. We will do a third of this franchise and then move on to something else. I essentially live off the profits currently and spend 10-30 hours a month on them.