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You will LOSE all of your money that you ever earned, and then a bunch that you still have not earned. If you’re not prepared to put it all on the line, you’re

You will LOSE all of your money that you ever earned, and then a bunch that you still have not earned. If you’re not prepared to put it all on the line, you’re not prepared for a start-up. Terrible assumption at best, a lie at worst. Putting everything on the line is not the only way to do a start-up that's successful.

choffstein 15y ago
I could not agree more. It's an irresponsible statement and should only be qualified by those entrepreneurs talking about how much money they started with. Though, having been to 500Startups and seeing the amount of 20-somethings there, I can't imagine they had much to lose in the first place. I don't see why this lie of having to put everything on the line is consistently perpetuated within the start-up ecosystem. Yes, start-ups are hard -- but I am getting tired of what seems like a consistently perpetuated lie so that start-ups can feed their own ego -- or worse, justify their failure.
devmach 15y ago
Why people such obsessed with running business like playing poker ? If you're puting your everything on the line, i think you are doing something wrong. What's hard with starting small, taking small risks and growing slow but steady ? Starting a business shouldn't be about going crazy, acting like a fool, putting everthing you have on the line and at the end loosing everything. People please, while you are at the university ,please, visit some (m)ba lesssons. If you don't have this chance, take advices from someone who you trust and runs a business.
loceng 15y ago
I have to assume it's based on having experience or not. If you don't have experience and had the opportunity to make mistakes then you have to make those mistakes, and they will have cost to them.
tlogan 15y ago
Actually - "Putting everything on the line" is the only way to get successful business. Before the Silly Valley become synonym for a startup/business, whoever wanted to be entrepreneur needed to invest a lot of his/her money to start a business. For example, think about running a "simple" limo service - that requires a lot of investment. In other words, you cannot assume that you will run startup and if it fails you will have great living like nothing happen. At least in software business you can easily find a job and start saving again. Also startup is "marathon" and not "sprint" but word "marathon" does not mean you run slow - it only means it takes forever :)

choffstein 15y ago

I could not agree more. It's an irresponsible statement and should only be qualified by those entrepreneurs talking about how much money they started with. Though, having been to 500Startups and seeing the amount of 20-somethings there, I can't imagine they had much to lose in the first place. I don't see why this lie of having to put everything on the line is consistently perpetuated within the start-up ecosystem. Yes, start-ups are hard -- but I am getting tired of what seems like a consistently perpetuated lie so that start-ups can feed their own ego -- or worse, justify their failure.

devmach 15y ago

Why people such obsessed with running business like playing poker ? If you're puting your everything on the line, i think you are doing something wrong. What's hard with starting small, taking small risks and growing slow but steady ? Starting a business shouldn't be about going crazy, acting like a fool, putting everthing you have on the line and at the end loosing everything. People please, while you are at the university ,please, visit some (m)ba lesssons. If you don't have this chance, take advices from someone who you trust and runs a business.

loceng 15y ago

I have to assume it's based on having experience or not. If you don't have experience and had the opportunity to make mistakes then you have to make those mistakes, and they will have cost to them.

tlogan 15y ago

Actually - "Putting everything on the line" is the only way to get successful business. Before the Silly Valley become synonym for a startup/business, whoever wanted to be entrepreneur needed to invest a lot of his/her money to start a business. For example, think about running a "simple" limo service - that requires a lot of investment. In other words, you cannot assume that you will run startup and if it fails you will have great living like nothing happen. At least in software business you can easily find a job and start saving again. Also startup is "marathon" and not "sprint" but word "marathon" does not mean you run slow - it only means it takes forever :)