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> The rich kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and miss. But, because they're a rich kid, they just take out their wallet (or parents' walle

> The rich kid will have a go at throwing the dart at the balloon, and miss. But, because they're a rich kid, they just take out their wallet (or parents' wallet), get more stubs, and try again (and again) until they hit the balloon I get contacted for a lot of “rich kid” startups for consulting work. This notion that rich kids are succeeding at startups due to their perseverance and fallback options is almost the opposite of what I see in the real world. A lot of the “rich kid” startup founders I’ve followed or tried to work with have been only half committed to actual working on their startups. They often want to be the idea guy or the money/fundraiser person or the iconic CEO role holder, but when it comes time to do the work they’re not interested in grinding. Those fallback options also become a liability when things get difficult or stop being fun. A lot of them dip out at the first signs of struggle and fall back to easy jobs in their parents’ network. In theory they should have more runway to persevere at a startup. In practice, they often have too many easy options to fall back on to actually persevere at the execution required.

the_af 4y ago
> I get contacted for a lot of “rich kid” startups for consulting work. Aren't you proving the OP's point? The point was, precisely, that they have options, not that they "persevere". Contracting consulting work is one such option. Poor people cannot contract anyone to help them.
- dinkumthinkum 4y ago
  I think he’s kind of making a case that the rich kids aren’t always the ones that succeed ultimately in startups because they leave at first sight of trouble.
eloff 4y ago
This makes intuitive sense to me. Startups are so hard that I know I wouldn’t persevere if I was sufficiently wealthy already. I’ve been failing at this game for twenty years straight. Like the OP, I quit last year and got a full time job again. But it always beckons me back somehow. It’s the failed startup attempts, the failed investments, the fraudsters who conned me out of my money, the career that could have been spectacular, but only ended up so-so because I’m not in the US. Somehow every knockdown from life makes me a little grittier, a little more determined when I get back up. How does a rich kid develop that?
D1sposableAcct 4y ago
Anon for the obvious reasons... I was involved in such a start-up. Two of the founders were smart, Ivy-educated, surprisingly well-connected for their youth, and lazy. Once there was funding and a professional team around them to grind out all the details and versions of the product and get it marketed and sold, you know, the hard stuff after the investor demos, they didn't want it anymore. One fucked off to party and couch-surf in warm vacation spots, the other meandered in and out before being shown the door by the board. I ran into one of them years later and they're both still kind of bouncing around doing influencer-things, writing, and being hustle advisors.

the_af 4y ago

> I get contacted for a lot of “rich kid” startups for consulting work. Aren't you proving the OP's point? The point was, precisely, that they have options, not that they "persevere". Contracting consulting work is one such option. Poor people cannot contract anyone to help them.

dinkumthinkum 4y ago
I think he’s kind of making a case that the rich kids aren’t always the ones that succeed ultimately in startups because they leave at first sight of trouble.

eloff 4y ago

This makes intuitive sense to me. Startups are so hard that I know I wouldn’t persevere if I was sufficiently wealthy already. I’ve been failing at this game for twenty years straight. Like the OP, I quit last year and got a full time job again. But it always beckons me back somehow. It’s the failed startup attempts, the failed investments, the fraudsters who conned me out of my money, the career that could have been spectacular, but only ended up so-so because I’m not in the US. Somehow every knockdown from life makes me a little grittier, a little more determined when I get back up. How does a rich kid develop that?

D1sposableAcct 4y ago

Anon for the obvious reasons... I was involved in such a start-up. Two of the founders were smart, Ivy-educated, surprisingly well-connected for their youth, and lazy. Once there was funding and a professional team around them to grind out all the details and versions of the product and get it marketed and sold, you know, the hard stuff after the investor demos, they didn't want it anymore. One fucked off to party and couch-surf in warm vacation spots, the other meandered in and out before being shown the door by the board. I ran into one of them years later and they're both still kind of bouncing around doing influencer-things, writing, and being hustle advisors.