Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
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Re: Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
#2It is important to point out that this is only possible for the consumer app economy or a self-service type of software app or digital marketplace (like craigslist). Everything else requires more headcount (could be outsourced to 3rd parties or consultants). And in the whole economy this is a sliver of companies.
This is a great business of course but there are not many of them given the scale of the whole economy.
Before the Internet, the closest to this was creators or inventors living off of patents, license or copyright fees.
Re: Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
#3I’m creating a startup. I’m the first and only employee, and likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
What would have taken an army of clerks in the past is now a (lot) of code. Whole departments are replaced by API’s that cost less than $100/month.
It’s really incredible.
Re: Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
#4It is important to point out that this is only possible for the consumer app economy or a self-service type of software app or digital marketplace (like craigslist). Everything else requires more headcount (could be outsourced to 3rd parties or consultants). And in the whole economy this is a sliver of companies. This is a great business of course but there are not many of them given the scale of the whole economy. B…
> This is a great business of course but there are not many of them given the scale of the whole economy.
This is a very good point to emphasize. Most readers here on HN work in IT and are thus inherently biased.
The reality is that the majority businesses rely on having a workforce of humans.
Re: Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
#5Based on his argument: Fewer people are doing a lot more thanks to being good at automation. It's the automation that's making it possible to be successful, not the engineers doing the automation.
The past three years, the YC crowd has really tried hard to justify wealth disparities, gentrification and generally treating employees like garbage, as part of their Objectivist agenda.
Paul, employees do the automation, not the founders.
Re: Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
#6If founding work is so simple then founders should be interchangeable? Where is the moat that ensures what two handful of people cobbled together is not replicated? Isn't it that the real moat and the real propelling force becomes more and more the capital leveraged?
Re: Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
#7It's frightening that people "at the top" write those things without even realizing how it sounds for ordinary people.
I think this delusion is on par with Marie Antoinette and her "eat cakes if you don't have bread".
Re: Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
#8Based on his argument: Fewer people are doing a lot more thanks to being good at automation. It's the automation that's making it possible to be successful, not the engineers doing the automation. The past three years, the YC crowd has really tried hard to justify wealth disparities, gentrification and generally treating employees like garbage, as part of their Objectivist agenda. Paul, employees do the automation, n…
I don't follow? Lots of technical founders create their own automations.
Re: Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
#9Based on his argument: Fewer people are doing a lot more thanks to being good at automation. It's the automation that's making it possible to be successful, not the engineers doing the automation. The past three years, the YC crowd has really tried hard to justify wealth disparities, gentrification and generally treating employees like garbage, as part of their Objectivist agenda. Paul, employees do the automation, n…
Pretty clear that these are people who want to fuck you over. Silicon Valley elites have accumulated enough power to come mask off. Entitled dirtbags who profited off government funded science and technology who've never created an ounce of value in their lives.
Re: Automation enables founders to grow companies with fewer and fewer employees
#10Based on his argument: Fewer people are doing a lot more thanks to being good at automation. It's the automation that's making it possible to be successful, not the engineers doing the automation. The past three years, the YC crowd has really tried hard to justify wealth disparities, gentrification and generally treating employees like garbage, as part of their Objectivist agenda. Paul, employees do the automation, n…
I don't follow? Lots of technical founders create their own automations.
His whole point is: There is a lot of great free open source software being exploited by small technical teams to run faster. This means the people doing the integration deserve less $$ because they can do the same amount with less. Founders deserve all the money, everybody else should be happy to be employed.
1920s robber baron bs.
Ignore the ethics that every single startup would be impossible without standing on the heads of those who have dedicated many hours of their lives building this free software.