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“His father, Gregory, worked directly under legendary GE executive Jack Welch, and the Liemandts vacationed with the Welches. After his father left GE to be CEO

“His father, Gregory, worked directly under legendary GE executive Jack Welch, and the Liemandts vacationed with the Welches. After his father left GE to be CEO of a mainframe software company in Dallas in 1983, Liemandt began programming but also took a strong interest in entrepreneurship, frequently reading the business plans his father brought home. As a Stanford economics major, he was determined to create the kind of business that either Jack Welch or his father would want to buy. His obsession with sales efficiency spawned Trilogy, and in 1990, at age 21, he defied his parents’ wishes and dropped out of Stanford to build his software company. Six years later his sales were some $120 million and he was on the cover of Forbes.“ That’s a pretty remarkable insight that’s tough to illustrate without including someone as venerable as Jack Welch. It’s the knowledge of what’s possible and how things are already being done that lends an amazing edge to talented/smart people born to the right circumstances. The cognitive leap that you have to make without this knowledge frequently leads people to over-estimate complexity and excellence you’d have to compete against. This first hand knowledge of exactly how top business plan, value and view opportunities is amazingly valuable. The question is, how do you move this from being a family/birth advantage to being part of education?

chubot 8y ago
To its credit, YC is trying to do that: https://www.startupschool.org/ https://www.startupschool.org/ I have no intention of starting a startup, but I watched some of the videos, and they seem like valuable new information.
- sologoub 8y ago
  More thinking in terms of kids/parents. In order to know that YC exists, the kid needs to learn from somewhere. It’s the initial discovery problem. I feel that currently we have all the resources for those who want to start a company, but I don’t know if we are good at showing new genetraion what’s possible across the board. Imagine the innovation we could see if every capable kid got to hang out with Jack Welch and absorb that excellence?
  - geodel 8y ago
    Parents can advice kids to marry up. I think this is practical and profound advice. It would be applicable across different societies and it does not involve white, first world or big city privilege etc. Also the accounting shenanigans of GE which are finally getting much more coverage lately and major role of Jack Welch in it. I'd think most of innovation by hanging out with Welch will be in separating fools from their money. Now a lot of companies would be like this but their CEOs do not get top billing like him.

chubot 8y ago

To its credit, YC is trying to do that: https://www.startupschool.org/ https://www.startupschool.org/ I have no intention of starting a startup, but I watched some of the videos, and they seem like valuable new information.

sologoub 8y ago
More thinking in terms of kids/parents. In order to know that YC exists, the kid needs to learn from somewhere. It’s the initial discovery problem. I feel that currently we have all the resources for those who want to start a company, but I don’t know if we are good at showing new genetraion what’s possible across the board. Imagine the innovation we could see if every capable kid got to hang out with Jack Welch and absorb that excellence?
- geodel 8y ago
  Parents can advice kids to marry up. I think this is practical and profound advice. It would be applicable across different societies and it does not involve white, first world or big city privilege etc. Also the accounting shenanigans of GE which are finally getting much more coverage lately and major role of Jack Welch in it. I'd think most of innovation by hanging out with Welch will be in separating fools from their money. Now a lot of companies would be like this but their CEOs do not get top billing like him.