3 ms·
Agree that’s the right analysis for many people. Wasn’t arguing whether you should start a startup or not. Just that if you do bootstrapping isn’t inherently be
by eastdakota 3y ago
Agree that’s the right analysis for many people. Wasn’t arguing whether you should start a startup or not. Just that if you do bootstrapping isn’t inherently better than raising venture capital.
Your broader point is important too: startups are unfortunately too often a luxury of the upper class. It is extremely scary to take a risk when you don’t have a safety net. I was personally broke when we started Cloudflare and had to borrow money from my mom to pay my rent. But I could borrow money from my mom. And I had a mom and a family that if I failed would make sure I didn’t go hungry. My family wasn’t anything close to what I now see really rich looks like, but we weren’t scraping by. Had I not had that safety net I don’t think I’d have had the confidence to start Cloudflare. And I think that’s a real issue with entrepreneurship we don’t talk enough about.
- yibg 3y agoI think we also focus and celebrate too much the route of college drop out start up founders. For these cases yes some family wealth is definitely beneficial as a safety net. But there are also plenty of people that have worked for a while, provided themselves a safety net and go on the startup journey in their 30s and 40s. Eg. Eric Yuan, who was a eng VP already before zoom. But I guess those don’t grab the same headline attention.
- eastdakota 3y agoI was 34 when I started Cloudflare and had had every random job from bartender to LSAT test prep instructor to adjunct law professor. Eric, incidentally, is one of the kindest, most curious people I’ve had a pleasure to get to know on this journey. Feel lucky to call him a friend. Truly great guy.