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It's the height of ridiculousness for someone who retired, at like age 30 to run a nightclub, after working at a startup to say it's a "con". What kind of terri
by staunch 15y ago
It's the height of ridiculousness for someone who retired, at like age 30 to run a nightclub, after working at a startup to say it's a "con". What kind of terrible "con" turns the victim into a millionaire.
There are far more startup employees that have become rich than founders or investors. Tens or hundreds of thousands of them. Of course they don't get as much money as the founders or investors, but how is that anything other than perfectly fair?
Empirically it does require extremely hard work to make a startup successful. You can't point to any major success like Netscape or Google that didn't involve someone at some point sleeping under a desk. That's really all Arriington is saying, and it's quite obviously correct.
For some people it might be no better than playing the lottery, but for other people their odds are going to be very high. Someone like Bill Gates would have been hugely successful as a McDonald's franchisee or anything else he chose to do.
Just because some people are delusional about their odds doesn't make it a con.
- vaksel 15y agofor an employee to get rich at a startup...and by which I mean $1 million cashout(which isn't really all that rich anyways)...the company would need to sell for $100mm...and much more likely, the number is closer to $250mm...since employees tend to get ~ half a percent of equity..and that's early employees...so the number is even lower for those that come in later. So sure, there are billion dollar companies where employees get millions...but those are rare...almost as rare as the number of people who make millions playing the lottery
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- InclinedPlane 15y agoJWZ acknowledges that he got lucky with the "Netscape Startup Lottery" and is trying to tell people that most employees at most startups won't see the same results. Even if they are world-class genius coders. Even if they put in 80 hour work weeks for several years. JWZ isn't a good example to emulate because he is a rare example. Patio11 is a better example because there are literally thousands more devs in a similar position. Self-employed, doing well, but not retired and not outrageously wealthy.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoFor reference: if you earn, say, $70k/year at a startup working 80 hr/week 52 weeks a year you are making the equivalent of $13.50 an hour at an hourly position that paid overtime. Alternately: $25/hr for 51 hr/week with 2 weeks of vacation a year. Hope that equity is worth it!
- fpgeek 15y agoWould it be ridiculous for someone who won a literal (rather than metaphorical) lottery to call lotteries a con? Because they are, whether you win one or not.
- staunch 15y agoNo. Lotteries are not cons either. In the US the rules are published on every ticket and are upheld. Not that I buy the comparison to lotteries. I'd say startups are much closer to poker. Some people have no chance at making a living playing poker -- other people could almost certainly do it if they tried. I bet Bill Gates could have been a very good professional poker player.