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> I’d be interested to see how “normal” the kind of fall back options these founders had. My history in SF weirdly intertwines with AirBnB. I first met them in

by timr 6y ago

> I’d be interested to see how “normal” the kind of fall back options these founders had. My history in SF weirdly intertwines with AirBnB. I first met them in 2007, at an "unofficial startup school afterparty" (this was before they were funded by YC). The party consisted of Brian and (IIRC) Joe, and a couple of bottles of booze and some soda in their apartment (the one they rented out to the first guests). Let me just say that they weren't living in luxury: there were mattresses on the floor. The only notable piece of furniture in the place was a table, and a bookshelf filled with white, blank-covered book galleys that Brian had gotten for free from some print-industry connection. I then worked at Justin.tv when these guys were getting advice from Michael and eating lunch with us on a regular basis. I bought them drinks because they were broke. The unsold Obama-O's boxes were sitting around the office. I'm as cynical as the next guy about the relative well-off-ness of a lot of startup founders these days, and I don't have any personal insight into their finances at that time. That said, as much as anyone in SF in 2008 had no fallback plan, the AirBnB founders seem to fit the bill.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
I'm sure they might not have had silver spoons, but maxing out your credit cards is a luxury that people have when they don't have families to support (not to mention moving to SF). I'm not just referring to your own children, but if you have parents that need help, or siblings that need help. For example, if I was in these 3 gentlemen's shoes, I would have not maxed out my credit cards, because my parents were entering their 50s and they didn't have gold plated health insurance from government or a F500 company, so I knew I had to play it safe and be ready to be there if and when they need me for assistance with healthcare expenses. I don't mean to detract from any of their achievements, surely they put forth effort into getting into the right schools, studying the right subjects, and focusing their energy on something that netted them a very high ROI. The purpose of my comment was to shine a light on how being in a position to max out credit cards in SF in the first place without greatly negatively altering your family's trajectory qualifies you as "normal" in a very restricted sense of the word "normal".
breck 6y ago
I disagree about the fallback plan. Please people, do not max out your credit cards, at least not until you are as good as what you do as they Airbnbs were in 2008. I think there's a cognitive bias at YC where they don't realize that most people (especially 20 year olds) are not very good at making things, and so on average the best advice you can give the general public is just to get better at making things. The Airbnbs were exceptionally skilled and hard working people. They made all sorts of weird stuff—and did it well. The cereal boxes were the tip of the iceberg. Brian and Joe could design (and throw a good party!). Nate was a terrific coder who did CS at Harvard. I would absolutely say they had the best fallback plan—they could make things. They could've gotten other jobs. That takes decades of hard work (I'm sure they started building things when they were very young). So if you can't make good things, DO NOT max out your credit cards. You will be setting yourself up for disaster. Instead invest in your skillset. If you aren't good enough to build something great, go out and get a job(s) and keep working on it. I like a poem written in 1916 about being someone who "delivers the goods" (https://breckyunits.com/deliver.html https://breckyunits.com/deliver.html)

by timr 6y ago

lotsofpulp 6y ago

I'm sure they might not have had silver spoons, but maxing out your credit cards is a luxury that people have when they don't have families to support (not to mention moving to SF). I'm not just referring to your own children, but if you have parents that need help, or siblings that need help. For example, if I was in these 3 gentlemen's shoes, I would have not maxed out my credit cards, because my parents were entering their 50s and they didn't have gold plated health insurance from government or a F500 company, so I knew I had to play it safe and be ready to be there if and when they need me for assistance with healthcare expenses. I don't mean to detract from any of their achievements, surely they put forth effort into getting into the right schools, studying the right subjects, and focusing their energy on something that netted them a very high ROI. The purpose of my comment was to shine a light on how being in a position to max out credit cards in SF in the first place without greatly negatively altering your family's trajectory qualifies you as "normal" in a very restricted sense of the word "normal".

breck 6y ago

I disagree about the fallback plan. Please people, do not max out your credit cards, at least not until you are as good as what you do as they Airbnbs were in 2008. I think there's a cognitive bias at YC where they don't realize that most people (especially 20 year olds) are not very good at making things, and so on average the best advice you can give the general public is just to get better at making things. The Airbnbs were exceptionally skilled and hard working people. They made all sorts of weird stuff—and did it well. The cereal boxes were the tip of the iceberg. Brian and Joe could design (and throw a good party!). Nate was a terrific coder who did CS at Harvard. I would absolutely say they had the best fallback plan—they could make things. They could've gotten other jobs. That takes decades of hard work (I'm sure they started building things when they were very young). So if you can't make good things, DO NOT max out your credit cards. You will be setting yourself up for disaster. Instead invest in your skillset. If you aren't good enough to build something great, go out and get a job(s) and keep working on it. I like a poem written in 1916 about being someone who "delivers the goods" (https://breckyunits.com/deliver.html https://breckyunits.com/deliver.html)