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>Explain why the problem you’re solving is impacting society, rather than brag about the amount raised, valuation, or the VCs pedigree I feel like this fundame

>Explain why the problem you’re solving is impacting society, rather than brag about the amount raised, valuation, or the VCs pedigree I feel like this fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of "startups". Startups exist to make fast cash for investors, with the downside of often being vaporware and being worth nothing. This is *not* a model in which solving a problem is your objective, your objective is to capture a market or (most likely) be bought by a bigger company who has more confidence than you do. Accept that and producing a shiny toy for the VC ecosystem to play hot potato with. If you want to *solve* a problem, you should form a business with the expectation of slow, but steady growth and long term objectives (or if you're feeling really bold, a 501c3). Anything which can be created by 2 fresh college grads in 6 months isn't solving anything major, honestly it's probably just a wrapper about some POSIX and a few APIs.

bombcar 4y ago
This is it exactly - "startups" that are concerned with solving a problem and NOT with playing with VC are just bootstrapped companies, doing business things.
prottog 4y ago
> (or if you're feeling really bold, a 501c3) The profit incentive is a powerful one that often leads to solving real problems. Some of the worst-run, most ineffective organizations in the world are nonprofits, so you'd have to be very bold indeed to go that way.
- edmundsauto 4y ago
  Since some of the biggest money losing ventures are similarly poorly run (ftx, Uber, we work, etc).. wouldn’t it be better to not look at charter type and instead find something that actually differentiates the good from the bad?
AnimalMuppet 4y ago
> Anything which can be created by 2 fresh college grads in 6 months isn't solving anything major, honestly it's probably just a wrapper about some POSIX and a few APIs. Um, Google? And yet it solved something major - better search results.
- SQueeeeeL 4y ago
  Larry Page was literally a PhD student studying search space. From a basic search, it looks like page rank took at least 3 years to become something coherent and implementable.
  - paulgb 4y ago
    And then once it was coherent and implementable, he took venture funding to scale a business around it. I'm not sure I see your point.
gumby 4y ago
> I feel like this fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of "startups". Startups exist to make fast cash for investors... No, a startup is a company intended to grow large (or be bought out on the expectation of same). It may be small early on but it's different from a small business. Intel and Cisco are classic startups that didn't grow like lightning but were intended from the start to be very large companies. Obviously the investors would like sooner rather than later, but ultimately the intent is larger returns than you'd get in the open market. The term "startup", like "entrepreneur", has been seriously diluted over the past 10-15 years so any old business is now a "startup" when it begins; while any business person is by definition an "entrepreneur", the old definition of that in English has been watered way down. There's nothing wrong with small business -- it's the backbone of normal society. But these small businesses designed to flip aren't startups in the classical sense. In particular, in Europe, 99.999% of what I see touted in the blogs and at conferences are simply small businesses that happen to have a web site or API. Having founded startups both bootstrapped and venture funded I know the difference. A lot of it comes from scratching an itch rather than starting with a desire for cash.

bombcar 4y ago

This is it exactly - "startups" that are concerned with solving a problem and NOT with playing with VC are just bootstrapped companies, doing business things.

prottog 4y ago

> (or if you're feeling really bold, a 501c3) The profit incentive is a powerful one that often leads to solving real problems. Some of the worst-run, most ineffective organizations in the world are nonprofits, so you'd have to be very bold indeed to go that way.

edmundsauto 4y ago
Since some of the biggest money losing ventures are similarly poorly run (ftx, Uber, we work, etc).. wouldn’t it be better to not look at charter type and instead find something that actually differentiates the good from the bad?

AnimalMuppet 4y ago

> Anything which can be created by 2 fresh college grads in 6 months isn't solving anything major, honestly it's probably just a wrapper about some POSIX and a few APIs. Um, Google? And yet it solved something major - better search results.

SQueeeeeL 4y ago
Larry Page was literally a PhD student studying search space. From a basic search, it looks like page rank took at least 3 years to become something coherent and implementable.
- paulgb 4y ago
  And then once it was coherent and implementable, he took venture funding to scale a business around it. I'm not sure I see your point.

gumby 4y ago

> I feel like this fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of "startups". Startups exist to make fast cash for investors... No, a startup is a company intended to grow large (or be bought out on the expectation of same). It may be small early on but it's different from a small business. Intel and Cisco are classic startups that didn't grow like lightning but were intended from the start to be very large companies. Obviously the investors would like sooner rather than later, but ultimately the intent is larger returns than you'd get in the open market. The term "startup", like "entrepreneur", has been seriously diluted over the past 10-15 years so any old business is now a "startup" when it begins; while any business person is by definition an "entrepreneur", the old definition of that in English has been watered way down. There's nothing wrong with small business -- it's the backbone of normal society. But these small businesses designed to flip aren't startups in the classical sense. In particular, in Europe, 99.999% of what I see touted in the blogs and at conferences are simply small businesses that happen to have a web site or API. Having founded startups both bootstrapped and venture funded I know the difference. A lot of it comes from scratching an itch rather than starting with a desire for cash.