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>We all start businesses because we’re frustrated with something. I disagree. Sometimes it's because we see other people frustrated with something and think we

by ikeboy 10y ago

>We all start businesses because we’re frustrated with something. I disagree. Sometimes it's because we see other people frustrated with something and think we can help, or more generally because we had an idea to provide value to some group of people without necessarily being in that group of people ourselves.

callmeed 10y ago
I don't know. I have to say, most startup origin stories I've heard seem to begin with personal pain. Kalanick and Camp started Uber because they had problems getting a cab in Paris. Zuckerberg created Facebook/mash to have a central Harvard student directory. Stripe because Patrick C had so much trouble setting up payments for other projects. At the very least, another person's pain causes you pain via empathy or some sort of chain reaction. I had a successful website business that was born solely out of a friend's constant requests for updates. I hacked a CMS together and a business was born. His pain was getting his website updated–my pain was him bugging me.
- askafriend 10y ago
  Those stories are usually made up after the fact. People naturally have the tendency to create interesting narratives to explain phenomenon in their lives. It's also just better PR. I know this sounds cynical, but it's more often than not true. Kalanick may have had a hard time hailing a cab...but that probably wasn't inconvenient enough to want him to devote his entire life to building a company solving that one specific problem that he randomly had in his life.
  - tinco 10y ago
    Is that really so hard to believe? Building a social network or a ride sharing app is something you do in a couple of months maybe a year. When it takes off though, that's when you make the decision to dedicate your life to it for the years to come.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- tjalfi 10y ago
  Trevor Blackwell has a good article (https://web.archive.org/web/20070602193754/http://tlb.org/founderstories.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070602193754/http://tlb.org/fo...) on founder stories.
  - IsaacL 10y ago
    This is a great post. "Early on, when a reporter asked me how I came up with the idea for Anybots, I answered honestly that I made a list of all the ideas I thought might really change the world in the next 20 years, and picked the one I thought I could contribute most to. His eyes glazed over. It's unprintable." A lot of people seem to take the "romantic origin story" as a template to follow, and waste a lot of time as a result.
- bootload 10y ago
  "I have to say, most startup origin stories I've heard seem to begin with personal pain." Personal pain or recognition of a pattern of problem(s) that could be solved? This is an interesting point because if you limit yourself to simply solving your personal problems, these problems have to be experienced by either a large number of people (usually peers). Otherwise there is no real chance of a business. I'd prefer to put this as, "solving a personal problem that many* other people face"*.
  - callmeed 10y ago
    > This is an interesting point because if you limit yourself to simply solving your personal problems Uhh, we're all the same species living in one of a handful of large societies. Our personal or work problems are likely shared by thousands, millions, possibly even billions of other people. No one is that weird or special of a snowflake.
douche 10y ago
That's where the real money is. Not many people made a killing mining in the gold rushes. Quite a few made out real well selling boots, picks, booze and less savory necessities, to the greater mass of fools, though.
- contingencies 10y ago
  At Infinite Food we sell food to regular people. Not one demographic of people mind you, people in general. We sometimes compete on convenience/availability, sometimes on choice, sometimes on sanitation, sometimes on novelty, sometimes on personalization, sometimes on familiarity. But the key thing we provide is hot, personalized meals: http://8-food.com/ http://8-food.com/ I thought to myself "what is more addictive a product than big tobacco?". We all need food, and society is slowly changing with megatrends that make feeding yourself at home more of a hassle for quite a few of us (aging populations, people living solo or just with one partner, weird hours/urban living, commute fatigue, international travel, etc.). So ... why not try to automate a reasonable solution with fresh ingredients and mass-appeal? So far we haven't had problems getting people on board with the idea or menus, though some of our chef friends remain skeptical!
- nandemo 10y ago
  > Modern estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey are that some 12 million ounces (370 t) of gold were removed in the first five years of the Gold Rush (worth over US$16 billion at December 2010 prices). [0] Gee, they must have sold a bootload of boots then! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush
  - mikepavone 10y ago
    From that same article: > Recent scholarship confirms that merchants made far more money than miners during the Gold Rush. The wealthiest man in California during the early years of the rush was Samuel Brannan, a tireless self-promoter, shopkeeper and newspaper publisher. Brannan opened the first supply stores in Sacramento, Coloma, and other spots in the goldfields. Just as the rush began he purchased all the prospecting supplies available in San Francisco and re-sold them at a substantial profit. > Some gold-seekers made a significant amount of money. On average, half the gold-seekers made a modest profit, after taking all expenses into account; economic historians have suggested that white miners were more successful than black, Indian, or Chinese miners. Most late arrivals made little or wound up losing money.

by ikeboy 10y ago

callmeed 10y ago

I don't know. I have to say, most startup origin stories I've heard seem to begin with personal pain. Kalanick and Camp started Uber because they had problems getting a cab in Paris. Zuckerberg created Facebook/mash to have a central Harvard student directory. Stripe because Patrick C had so much trouble setting up payments for other projects. At the very least, another person's pain causes you pain via empathy or some sort of chain reaction. I had a successful website business that was born solely out of a friend's constant requests for updates. I hacked a CMS together and a business was born. His pain was getting his website updated–my pain was him bugging me.

askafriend 10y ago
Those stories are usually made up after the fact. People naturally have the tendency to create interesting narratives to explain phenomenon in their lives. It's also just better PR. I know this sounds cynical, but it's more often than not true. Kalanick may have had a hard time hailing a cab...but that probably wasn't inconvenient enough to want him to devote his entire life to building a company solving that one specific problem that he randomly had in his life.
- tinco 10y ago
  Is that really so hard to believe? Building a social network or a ride sharing app is something you do in a couple of months maybe a year. When it takes off though, that's when you make the decision to dedicate your life to it for the years to come.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
tjalfi 10y ago
Trevor Blackwell has a good article (https://web.archive.org/web/20070602193754/http://tlb.org/founderstories.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070602193754/http://tlb.org/fo...) on founder stories.
- IsaacL 10y ago
  This is a great post. "Early on, when a reporter asked me how I came up with the idea for Anybots, I answered honestly that I made a list of all the ideas I thought might really change the world in the next 20 years, and picked the one I thought I could contribute most to. His eyes glazed over. It's unprintable." A lot of people seem to take the "romantic origin story" as a template to follow, and waste a lot of time as a result.
bootload 10y ago
"I have to say, most startup origin stories I've heard seem to begin with personal pain." Personal pain or recognition of a pattern of problem(s) that could be solved? This is an interesting point because if you limit yourself to simply solving your personal problems, these problems have to be experienced by either a large number of people (usually peers). Otherwise there is no real chance of a business. I'd prefer to put this as, "solving a personal problem that many* other people face"*.
- callmeed 10y ago
  > This is an interesting point because if you limit yourself to simply solving your personal problems Uhh, we're all the same species living in one of a handful of large societies. Our personal or work problems are likely shared by thousands, millions, possibly even billions of other people. No one is that weird or special of a snowflake.

douche 10y ago

That's where the real money is. Not many people made a killing mining in the gold rushes. Quite a few made out real well selling boots, picks, booze and less savory necessities, to the greater mass of fools, though.

contingencies 10y ago
At Infinite Food we sell food to regular people. Not one demographic of people mind you, people in general. We sometimes compete on convenience/availability, sometimes on choice, sometimes on sanitation, sometimes on novelty, sometimes on personalization, sometimes on familiarity. But the key thing we provide is hot, personalized meals: http://8-food.com/ http://8-food.com/ I thought to myself "what is more addictive a product than big tobacco?". We all need food, and society is slowly changing with megatrends that make feeding yourself at home more of a hassle for quite a few of us (aging populations, people living solo or just with one partner, weird hours/urban living, commute fatigue, international travel, etc.). So ... why not try to automate a reasonable solution with fresh ingredients and mass-appeal? So far we haven't had problems getting people on board with the idea or menus, though some of our chef friends remain skeptical!
nandemo 10y ago
> Modern estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey are that some 12 million ounces (370 t) of gold were removed in the first five years of the Gold Rush (worth over US$16 billion at December 2010 prices). [0] Gee, they must have sold a bootload of boots then! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush
- mikepavone 10y ago
  From that same article: > Recent scholarship confirms that merchants made far more money than miners during the Gold Rush. The wealthiest man in California during the early years of the rush was Samuel Brannan, a tireless self-promoter, shopkeeper and newspaper publisher. Brannan opened the first supply stores in Sacramento, Coloma, and other spots in the goldfields. Just as the rush began he purchased all the prospecting supplies available in San Francisco and re-sold them at a substantial profit. > Some gold-seekers made a significant amount of money. On average, half the gold-seekers made a modest profit, after taking all expenses into account; economic historians have suggested that white miners were more successful than black, Indian, or Chinese miners. Most late arrivals made little or wound up losing money.