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HNers of the right age have probably been witness to every big startup in the last decade. I would be more interested in hearing what effects the big startups h

• twidlit 16y ago
  Reworded the description to draw that out (i hope).
• nostrademons 16y ago
  For me, the biggest effect has been to make the idea of having a successful startup feel "real", like this is something actually achievable in my lifetime. For a lot of people, the idea of making millions of dollars is something that happens to other people, people far away that live in gated communities. But those people include parents of some of my childhood friends, teachers I had in school, and coworkers I've worked with. The idea of founding a startup and changing the world doesn't seem so remote when the guy who says "Sorry your code review is taking so long; I'd do it myself if I still understood the code" has a net worth of almost a billion dollars. Basically, it takes away my excuses. A lot of people think "that sort of luck doesn't happen to people like me", and so they don't even try. But I've met a bunch of people that it has happened to, and they're smart and they're dedicated, but they aren't fundamentally all that different from me.