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Do lifestyle businesses really have the negative connotation that I’ve been told they have? I’ve heard about this stigma of a lifestyle business numerous times,

Do lifestyle businesses really have the negative connotation that I’ve been told they have? I’ve heard about this stigma of a lifestyle business numerous times, but everyone Ive ever actually talked to has said they sound lovely: you maintain a lot of control over your life and business, at the expense of perhaps more (unnecessary) money. I had thought for a long time that lifestyle businesses which weren’t optimizing to grow would be looked down upon, but I’ve never seen that. I think maybe there is some bias because of course we will hear more about the Ubers and Doordashes of the world, rather than the Basecamps of the world.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
> Do lifestyle businesses really have the negative connotation that I’ve been told they have? My cynical hypothesis is that it's 50/50 of a good chunk of tech community feeling FOMO ("I want to get rich quick too!"), and VCs creating this perception. VCs need fresh young blood to push through the startup grinder. That said, I haven't noticed much of this connotation here on HN (which is ironic, this being ex-Startup News, and a board attached to an VC company). For this I have another hypothesis: HN has a slightly different bias when the EU is awake, which is now.
- hef19898 6y ago
  I never thought about the regional bias of HN. But it sounds reasonable. And being from the EU, I probably wouldn't notice.
codegeek 6y ago
First, stop calling any business a lifestyle business. Business is always hard no matter how much time you put into it. I run a bootstrapped SAAS bsiness that grew "only" 20% last year. I know that is not even close to what VCs want if I wanted money but that 20% growth was great for our team and we can continue to working on building a great sustainable and profitable business. However, I can assure you there is nothing "lifestyle" about it. As the founder, I grind my ass as much as the founder of a VC backed company.
redis_mlc 6y ago
> Do lifestyle businesses really have the negative connotation that I’ve been told they have? For VCs they do, as they need 1/20 or 2/20 of their investments to become a unicorn (worth $1+ billion) to get their returns and pay for the losing investments. In addition, if you aim low, a funded company can outspend you on advertising, staffing, discounts, etc. Whether they get better returns than you is a different issue - I have heard of several bootstrapped companies surviving after VC-funded companies went supernova and spent all their investment without getting more.

TeMPOraL 6y ago

> Do lifestyle businesses really have the negative connotation that I’ve been told they have? My cynical hypothesis is that it's 50/50 of a good chunk of tech community feeling FOMO ("I want to get rich quick too!"), and VCs creating this perception. VCs need fresh young blood to push through the startup grinder. That said, I haven't noticed much of this connotation here on HN (which is ironic, this being ex-Startup News, and a board attached to an VC company). For this I have another hypothesis: HN has a slightly different bias when the EU is awake, which is now.

hef19898 6y ago
I never thought about the regional bias of HN. But it sounds reasonable. And being from the EU, I probably wouldn't notice.

codegeek 6y ago

First, stop calling any business a lifestyle business. Business is always hard no matter how much time you put into it. I run a bootstrapped SAAS bsiness that grew "only" 20% last year. I know that is not even close to what VCs want if I wanted money but that 20% growth was great for our team and we can continue to working on building a great sustainable and profitable business. However, I can assure you there is nothing "lifestyle" about it. As the founder, I grind my ass as much as the founder of a VC backed company.

redis_mlc 6y ago

> Do lifestyle businesses really have the negative connotation that I’ve been told they have? For VCs they do, as they need 1/20 or 2/20 of their investments to become a unicorn (worth $1+ billion) to get their returns and pay for the losing investments. In addition, if you aim low, a funded company can outspend you on advertising, staffing, discounts, etc. Whether they get better returns than you is a different issue - I have heard of several bootstrapped companies surviving after VC-funded companies went supernova and spent all their investment without getting more.