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I've heard this same story everywhere outside Silicon Valley; Not enough big exits, means not enough angels, means not enough seed capital, means too many servi
by aditya 16y ago
I've heard this same story everywhere outside Silicon Valley; Not enough big exits, means not enough angels, means not enough seed capital, means too many service companies and almost no product companies.
pg's talked a lot about being ramen profitable and as a decent engineer you should be able to put away $15k and take 3 months off to go build a startup.
Except capital is only one piece of the puzzle. Building a real product company takes a lot more than just capital. I don't know what a good solution is, but atleast NYC seems to be solving it with pumping more early stage money into the system and slightly easier access to mentors. But even here we don't have a lot of people with the time, inclination and big exits behind them the mentor and nurture younger entrepreneurs...
- sachinag 16y agoYou don't need mentors to have your company take off. You need a good idea, the ability (which includes runway, meaning cash) to execute, and the wisdom to learn from your mistakes. If you're a decent engineer with a little saved up, all you have to do is come up with (1) and recognize if you're capable of (3).
- daleharvey 16y agothe only thing that is "needed" to succeed is a passionate and talented founder(s). everything else is about arbitrage and increasing the odds in which you can succeed, access to mentors and respected peers are undoubtedly a huge part of that, as the valley shows.
- hga 16y agoYou might not need mentors but I'll bet good ones help. There's a lot to learn in so many domains and good mentoring can speed up that learning substantially.