4 ms·
More or less predictable?
by yters 15y ago
More or less predictable?
- pg 15y agoLess predictable. We thought we'd learn how to pick winners. What we learned instead is that it's impossible. Not just because luck is such a big factor, but because founders change.
- ph0rque 15y agoGiven that founders change, is there something one can do as a founder to change into one whose company is more likely to succeed?
- pg 15y agoYes: become tougher and more ambitious, and less self-indulgent. Probably the single most important change is to overcome the fear of failure that makes one accept early, small acquistion offers. It's hard to turn down an early offer for a few million, but every successful startup has.
- staunch 15y agoYou said in FAW that you would have sold Viaweb for peanuts if you had the opportunity. Luckily the low offers fell through. Why not add a new fund to YC for the purpose of partially cashing out founders, as an alternative to them selling early? This seems to be a missing component from the "what would have helped us at Viaweb" strategy.
- pg 15y agoWe have been actively encouraging later stage investors do to this, and it is now very common.
- yters 15y agoCan you elaborate on toughness? I.e. not pushed around as much by potential buyers, users?