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You're on Hacker News -- 99% of startups fail. Every person is just a one-man startup. He tried something, it didn't work out. If he was a company, nobody wo

You're on Hacker News -- 99% of startups fail. Every person is just a one-man startup. He tried something, it didn't work out. If he was a company, nobody would bat an eye at bankruptcy.

anoxor 7y ago
I had to secure a summer loan against my grandparents assests to graduate 6 months earlier because my parents didn't have the credit. It's likely if I had to secure my entire loan debt that I likely wouldn't have gotten a phd or finished college under different circumstances. Take this to it's conclusion and this guy is securing his loan against his parents house which gets repoed. A company's loan is frequently secured against the assets of the owner. The dog fish head brewing in the documentary on it secured his new building against his house, which he would lose if the factory went under. This guy sounded like he had the option to continue working in a high paying field and chose not to.
joncp 7y ago
Perhaps a better metaphor would be a startup entrepreneur that takes VC and then folds the company when he doesn't like it anymore. He'd be in pretty hot water for a stunt like that.
- OnlineGladiator 7y ago
  It certainly depends on the context, but it's not unheard of for founders to realize their startup isn't experiencing hypergrowth and to shut down the company and return what's left of the money to investors. Usually investors are happy to get some money back versus none. Of course on the opposite end of the spectrum you have Adam Neumann, who engineered his way to being a billionaire with VC money for a company he seemed pretty happy to jettison once it was convenient to do so.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    > a company he seemed pretty happy to jettison once it was convenient to do so. He was forced out. This is not what the word "jettison" means
    - OnlineGladiator 7y ago
      He was bought out.
      - wutbrodo 7y ago
        Yea, that's the mechanism by which you're forced out when you hold equity. I'm not saying that he didn't make out like a bandit, but mood affiliation isn't an excuse for making false claims, and claiming that he "jettisoned" the company is flatly false.
zaroth 7y ago
Of course, and that’s why startups can’t get unsecured loans for $250k at any rate, let alone a reasonable interest rate.
- henrikschroder 7y ago
  You are almost exactly describing seed funding, something I assume a lot of startups still get.
  - pg_is_a_butt 7y ago
    You are almost exactly wrong about assuming a loan is the same as funding.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
    Hrm. Seed funding gives you a piece of the action, while debt gives you the right to repayment under defined terms. They are pretty distinct economically, to the point that they fall into entirely different asset classes. They are approximately the same thing the way a banana and an apple are approximately the same thing.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    Seed funding isn't a loan, it's equity. Nobody is suggesting that students give up 20% of all future income to the entity funding their education, which would roughly correspond to seed funding. That being said, there are some efforts towards equity-financing humans that are in their infancy.
    - asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
      > Nobody is suggesting Actually, people are. Income based repayment of student loan debt is already one such mechanism. But there are also universities that are piloting post-payment of college tuition via income sharing agreements.
      - wutbrodo 7y ago

You're on Hacker News -- 99% of startups fail. Every person is just a one-man startup. He tried something, it didn't work out. If he was a company, nobody would bat an eye at bankruptcy.

anoxor 7y ago

I had to secure a summer loan against my grandparents assests to graduate 6 months earlier because my parents didn't have the credit. It's likely if I had to secure my entire loan debt that I likely wouldn't have gotten a phd or finished college under different circumstances. Take this to it's conclusion and this guy is securing his loan against his parents house which gets repoed. A company's loan is frequently secured against the assets of the owner. The dog fish head brewing in the documentary on it secured his new building against his house, which he would lose if the factory went under. This guy sounded like he had the option to continue working in a high paying field and chose not to.

joncp 7y ago

Perhaps a better metaphor would be a startup entrepreneur that takes VC and then folds the company when he doesn't like it anymore. He'd be in pretty hot water for a stunt like that.

OnlineGladiator 7y ago
It certainly depends on the context, but it's not unheard of for founders to realize their startup isn't experiencing hypergrowth and to shut down the company and return what's left of the money to investors. Usually investors are happy to get some money back versus none. Of course on the opposite end of the spectrum you have Adam Neumann, who engineered his way to being a billionaire with VC money for a company he seemed pretty happy to jettison once it was convenient to do so.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  > a company he seemed pretty happy to jettison once it was convenient to do so. He was forced out. This is not what the word "jettison" means
  - OnlineGladiator 7y ago
    He was bought out.
    - wutbrodo 7y ago
      Yea, that's the mechanism by which you're forced out when you hold equity. I'm not saying that he didn't make out like a bandit, but mood affiliation isn't an excuse for making false claims, and claiming that he "jettisoned" the company is flatly false.

zaroth 7y ago

Of course, and that’s why startups can’t get unsecured loans for $250k at any rate, let alone a reasonable interest rate.

henrikschroder 7y ago
You are almost exactly describing seed funding, something I assume a lot of startups still get.
- pg_is_a_butt 7y ago
  You are almost exactly wrong about assuming a loan is the same as funding.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
  Hrm. Seed funding gives you a piece of the action, while debt gives you the right to repayment under defined terms. They are pretty distinct economically, to the point that they fall into entirely different asset classes. They are approximately the same thing the way a banana and an apple are approximately the same thing.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  Seed funding isn't a loan, it's equity. Nobody is suggesting that students give up 20% of all future income to the entity funding their education, which would roughly correspond to seed funding. That being said, there are some efforts towards equity-financing humans that are in their infancy.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
    > Nobody is suggesting Actually, people are. Income based repayment of student loan debt is already one such mechanism. But there are also universities that are piloting post-payment of college tuition via income sharing agreements.
    - wutbrodo 7y ago