5 ms·

I'd rather my parents leave me a bundle of cash rather than saddling me with their startup.

by spywaregorilla 4y ago

dieselgate 4y ago
This made me laugh because of the frankness. I interpreted the above as being more “sustainable small business” than a startup but maybe it’s irrelevant.
- spywaregorilla 4y ago
  It's hard though. Running a business is a full time job. Most businesses need to adapt. Handing over control to kids might not sit well with current employees or those with a financial interest in it. And the kid may very well want to do literally anything else and now be unable to do so. Especially if the business is not easily sold or would be seen as against the family wishes to do so. If it's just a financial interest in a business that the kid won't be controlling, then it's just money anyway.
masterof0 4y ago
You can sell your business, the cash you can leave to your kids, is upper bounded by how high you can get into the corporate ladder, which for most people, is not very high. Your family can always sell your business and get that cash. I was also referring to a profitable business, not a startup (is pretty uncommon for people to leave startups to their next in kin). I know people who have someone else running their family business (with a pretty good deal for both parties) and focus on other stuff they care about.
- spywaregorilla 4y ago
  You can try to sell your business. Selling a business is non-trivial. Especially if you're not close to it and don't know it. The cash you leave to your kids owning a business is upper bounded by how well your business does. Which, sure, could be better or worse, but most notably has a chance of being worth nothing. There are for sure many stories where a family business worked out great. But I would prefer an equal value in cash over a randomly chosen small business any day. Even if we subset it to the profitable ones.

5 ms·

I'd rather my parents leave me a bundle of cash rather than saddling me with their startup.

by spywaregorilla 4y ago

I'd rather my parents leave me a bundle of cash rather than saddling me with their startup.

dieselgate 4y ago
This made me laugh because of the frankness. I interpreted the above as being more “sustainable small business” than a startup but maybe it’s irrelevant.
- spywaregorilla 4y ago
  It's hard though. Running a business is a full time job. Most businesses need to adapt. Handing over control to kids might not sit well with current employees or those with a financial interest in it. And the kid may very well want to do literally anything else and now be unable to do so. Especially if the business is not easily sold or would be seen as against the family wishes to do so. If it's just a financial interest in a business that the kid won't be controlling, then it's just money anyway.
masterof0 4y ago
You can sell your business, the cash you can leave to your kids, is upper bounded by how high you can get into the corporate ladder, which for most people, is not very high. Your family can always sell your business and get that cash. I was also referring to a profitable business, not a startup (is pretty uncommon for people to leave startups to their next in kin). I know people who have someone else running their family business (with a pretty good deal for both parties) and focus on other stuff they care about.
- spywaregorilla 4y ago
  You can try to sell your business. Selling a business is non-trivial. Especially if you're not close to it and don't know it. The cash you leave to your kids owning a business is upper bounded by how well your business does. Which, sure, could be better or worse, but most notably has a chance of being worth nothing. There are for sure many stories where a family business worked out great. But I would prefer an equal value in cash over a randomly chosen small business any day. Even if we subset it to the profitable ones.