2 ms·

"Many startup founders go through months, and years of living on beans, struggling to pay bills " Most don't though. Most come from upper middle class familie

"Many startup founders go through months, and years of living on beans, struggling to pay bills " Most don't though. Most come from upper middle class families. They live 'Grad School Life' until they are successful. Meaning: ok, nothing phat or fancy, but they don't have any real trouble or risk. Of course - many do struggle for a long while. I think they should buy what they want ... but they shouldn't be showy about it. Don't drive your Ferrari into work when there's a layoff :). Or ever maybe. EDIT: there's quite a lot of data to validate that richer kids are more likely to be successful founders [1]. I'm not indicating that this is always the case of course, but it's pretty common. I worked for a while at a Fortune 50 and the kids we saw coming in as interns were really well prepared - I also noticed a pattern - their parents were Doctors, CEOs, high level government officials. I'm not saying they didn't earn the positions, but there's no doubt that their status helped, moreover, they already knew how to behave properly in a corporate/professional setting. I had no idea, that's not something my parents could teach me. Two of my 'rich kid' interns went on to found major companies, one of which there's 100% chance you've heard of and probably 80% chance you've used - the other just raised $50M. [1] http://www.andrewoswald.com/docs/entrepre.pdf http://www.andrewoswald.com/docs/entrepre.pdf

ci5er 9y ago
While I would not argue that a "good upbringing" (hence ability to do all the tribal signaling) is a major contributor to success, I would contend that claiming that most founders have these advantages is over-reaching. (Esp. given that most start-ups fail) Coming from a remote Wyoming ranching childhood, I will claim that signalling can be learned, and that most if not all customers, VCs and bankers I might talk to are shocked to learn that I was not brought up just like them. It's no different than lawyers or doctors, though. Every group has tribal signaling to help them identify if a person is in or out of their group. Learn to speak the language. Heck, even poor people (like me!) can do that.

ci5er 9y ago

While I would not argue that a "good upbringing" (hence ability to do all the tribal signaling) is a major contributor to success, I would contend that claiming that most founders have these advantages is over-reaching. (Esp. given that most start-ups fail) Coming from a remote Wyoming ranching childhood, I will claim that signalling can be learned, and that most if not all customers, VCs and bankers I might talk to are shocked to learn that I was not brought up just like them. It's no different than lawyers or doctors, though. Every group has tribal signaling to help them identify if a person is in or out of their group. Learn to speak the language. Heck, even poor people (like me!) can do that.