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It isn't like 3 or 4 percent though. Starting a startup ranges from a largely risk free career move to impossible. Most people today start at negative. Want to
by njepa 7y ago
It isn't like 3 or 4 percent though. Starting a startup ranges from a largely risk free career move to impossible. Most people today start at negative. Want to live in a decent sized city? That's at least $2k a month. An education? Might very well be $50k in debt. Job security? Need to put in the hours young.
Otherwise there is a very real chances of getting evicted, not being able to find a decent job, not being able to keep your friends or start a family. Plenty of people who are successful today have their parents pay for university, their first apartment and/or a safety net. And that is just to have a normal career.
- bluGill 7y agoCost to live in a decent sized city are much less than that in most cities. Sure Silicon Valley is going to be more. Also every city has rich areas that are more. However in most cities there are poor neighborhoods where rent is under $1000, and you can share that with a few roommates. If you tastes are to a stove that you don't need to light with a match, sidewalks that are even, and other nice things: that will cost you.
- kragen 7y ago> in most cities there are poor neighborhoods where rent is under $1000 Average income is about US$11000 a year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28no... And most people make less money than that, because the distribution isn't symmetric. The fact that "rent under $1000" seems low to you indicates that you live in a bubble.
- bluGill 7y agoI should have qualified that with US. You can rent a mud hut for few bucks in some remote backward village, but that is obviously not a lifestyle anyone reading this would wish.
- vorpalhex 7y ago> An education? Might very well be $50k in debt. You can get a perfectly decent degree from your community college for very affordable prices. Likewise you may not be able to live in downtown manhattan, but you can probably live anywhere in a whole bunch of the square states on $1k a month.
- PascLeRasc 7y agoHow many YC founders went to community college?
- lordCarbonFiber 7y agoWhile you're not wrong in the strictest sense, I feel like this sentiment is being myopic to the point malice. The network gained from going to a university full of likeminded and talented people as well as living in a city teeming with opportunity is huge. Not to mention generic quality of life improvements of living in a city, doubly so if you happen not to be a cis-het white man. Starting money is not strictly necessary nor sufficient for success but it sure can smooth over life's pitfalls, which makes risk taking a hell of a lot easier.
- SeanAppleby 7y agoFor better or for worse, VCs need heuristics to filter the likelihood of you pulling off what you're claiming you can, and prestige and depth of education is one of those factors, as well as employment history which also selects on those education factors. An associates from a community college isn't going to get you a meeting with a VC, nor is it going to get you past the resume screen at google to run around the education filter. This is also able to be circumvented by network, which is very easy to do if you are already at a high end university which will hold your hand grooming you for meetings with VCs they introduced you to, or where you can at least just ask your friend from college for an intro.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bubblewrap 7y agoEven the privileged YC founders seem to have made some sacrifices early on, like living on Ramen, sleeping in their office and sharing a rented space with many people. Must admit that "want to live in a decent city" is not really something that triggers my empathy. These days you can also do Kickstarters, apply for money from YCombinator, and other ways. And you don't have to sacrifice everything. You can try the startup for 3 years and still get an education if it fails.