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WHY do you want to do a startup? Because it's fashionable? Working at a startup is a good goal-- it's a fun work environment with a small tight-knit team. ST

WHY do you want to do a startup? Because it's fashionable? Working at a startup is a good goal-- it's a fun work environment with a small tight-knit team. STARTING a startup should be fueled by either a missionary zeal or a desire to gamble with 2+ years of your life to make a big pile of money (the average time to liquidity for VC backed startups is ~7 years). If you don't have one of those two, I can all but promise you'll burn out and/or get bored. My advice: wait for an idea/market that you love to pop into your head that you can't ignore. In the meantime, work at a startup for a decent salary (don't sacrifice much salary for options-- it's a sucker's bet).

hungry_hungry 16y ago
These are good questions... I want to start a startup because I: - Want to do something I care about, slash it's meaningful to me. I'm tired of realizing other people's ideas. - I want to make important decisions and have responsibility for their repercussions. - I want to create a lifestyle that I'd enjoy more for myself, including not having to be tied to a specific location. - I want to do something 'important' (a relative term, I know). I'm tired of wasting my time and talent on silly projects and bug fixes. - Money is important but not everything. Ideally I'd be earning as much as I do now from my corporate gig but that's not even necessary. I'm willing to gamble a couple of years of my life, but as I said, I'm not sure what to do/make. I agree that working for options is a sucker's bet, hence leaving a previous startup after working there a year. Thanks for getting me to clarify this. ~Henry
- seunosewa 16y ago
  If you don't have any ideas of your own you should be happy to help others with their ideas until you get yours!
- webwright 16y ago
  check this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=playe... Don't "do what you love"... "Love what you do". Aim at something rewarding in autonomy and mastery rather than holding out for a "cause" (if you want to maximize happiness). If you find a cause ("something important") anytime during this process, you can chase that too. But if you look at 100 people who really love what they do with their lives, I think it's surprising how few of those jobs fall into the "something important" bucket.

hungry_hungry 16y ago

These are good questions... I want to start a startup because I: - Want to do something I care about, slash it's meaningful to me. I'm tired of realizing other people's ideas. - I want to make important decisions and have responsibility for their repercussions. - I want to create a lifestyle that I'd enjoy more for myself, including not having to be tied to a specific location. - I want to do something 'important' (a relative term, I know). I'm tired of wasting my time and talent on silly projects and bug fixes. - Money is important but not everything. Ideally I'd be earning as much as I do now from my corporate gig but that's not even necessary. I'm willing to gamble a couple of years of my life, but as I said, I'm not sure what to do/make. I agree that working for options is a sucker's bet, hence leaving a previous startup after working there a year. Thanks for getting me to clarify this. ~Henry

seunosewa 16y ago
If you don't have any ideas of your own you should be happy to help others with their ideas until you get yours!
webwright 16y ago
check this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=playe... Don't "do what you love"... "Love what you do". Aim at something rewarding in autonomy and mastery rather than holding out for a "cause" (if you want to maximize happiness). If you find a cause ("something important") anytime during this process, you can chase that too. But if you look at 100 people who really love what they do with their lives, I think it's surprising how few of those jobs fall into the "something important" bucket.