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The tone in here sure has shifted. I remember Brian showing us his binder of maxed out credit cards they used to bootstrap the company. I remember the early ver

The tone in here sure has shifted. I remember Brian showing us his binder of maxed out credit cards they used to bootstrap the company. I remember the early version spitting unicorn errors every few seconds. A few things can be true at the same time: - Airbnb is an inspiring story for any entrepreneur - it has had arguably detrimental impacts - the founders came from privileged backgrounds - they also worked their ass off and are fiercely intelligent and risked plenty On the tech side - it’s always funny to hear the (correct) critiques of early Rails. It reminds me of when I was talking trash about Java as a kid. My boss laughed and said “Java bought me my house, so it’s good in my book”. Or the first Tesla I ever saw with the license plate “PHP LOL” in the Facebook parking lot. Pragmatism must beat idealism. In business and in database primary keys and everything in between.

dom96 3y ago
If you come from a privileged background then what are you risking really? Maxed out credit cards can easily be repaid by your rich parents/uncles/whatever. Though perhaps there are things they risked that I am not familiar with.
- wutwutwat 3y ago
  Risk does not necessarily mean financial risk. There's a lot more being risked doing a startup than cash, and those things should be pretty obvious, though maybe not everyone sees them as risks. I can think of a few and I've never done a startup. Reputation, mental health, credibility, friends and business associates, future job prospects, legal risks, etc. Fuck up a startup bad enough and even if you have millions in the bank you could have lost all of the things I just listed.
  - wenebego 3y ago
    Of all of the things you mentioned, rich people have much less risk comparatively than a poor person in the exact same situation
    - isleyaardvark 3y ago
      Or just a poor person in their daily life.
    - wutwutwat 3y ago
      Call me a dreamer but losing the things I mentioned is worse than losing money, which would be the same experience for both rich and poor people, since they have absolutely nothing to do with a number in a ledger.
fouc 3y ago
It's just a clickbait title, article is actually positive in tone.

dom96 3y ago

If you come from a privileged background then what are you risking really? Maxed out credit cards can easily be repaid by your rich parents/uncles/whatever. Though perhaps there are things they risked that I am not familiar with.

wutwutwat 3y ago
Risk does not necessarily mean financial risk. There's a lot more being risked doing a startup than cash, and those things should be pretty obvious, though maybe not everyone sees them as risks. I can think of a few and I've never done a startup. Reputation, mental health, credibility, friends and business associates, future job prospects, legal risks, etc. Fuck up a startup bad enough and even if you have millions in the bank you could have lost all of the things I just listed.
- wenebego 3y ago
  Of all of the things you mentioned, rich people have much less risk comparatively than a poor person in the exact same situation
  - isleyaardvark 3y ago
    Or just a poor person in their daily life.
  - wutwutwat 3y ago
    Call me a dreamer but losing the things I mentioned is worse than losing money, which would be the same experience for both rich and poor people, since they have absolutely nothing to do with a number in a ledger.

fouc 3y ago

It's just a clickbait title, article is actually positive in tone.