6 ms·

Paul Buchheit: The future of venture capital and high-tech entrepreneurship

73 points by juiceandjuice 14y ago

sdpurtill 14y ago
Great talk. Favorite quote so far: "The thing that we've noticed is that the longer you spend at a big company, the worse of an entrepreneur you are."
- rmATinnovafy 14y ago
  Quite profound. Companies seem to thrive on sould crunching. My own experience leads me to believe so. But would the inverse also hold true? Is unemployment a fuel to entrepreneurship? The longer you are unemployed or under employed leads to one just going for it?
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - soup10 14y ago
    I'd imagine that the number of successful entrepreneurs that couldn't find employment if they wanted to is pretty low. Personally, and from what I've seen, entrepreneurs and self-employed people just really really don't like working for 'the Man'. Even if 'the Man' is a great employer.
  - SkyMarshal 14y ago
    Opposite of big company != unemployed||underemployed. Could be working for startups, starting a startup, grad/school, independent contracting/freelancing, etc.
- aswanson 14y ago
  Yeah, I think staying at a big company is a proxy for a few things that can work against entrepreneurship: risk aversion, used to "playing a role", divorce of your daily thinking from the marketplace... It's like at BigCo you become a specialized, mature cell. Startups require stem cells, ready to adapt into whatever the market requires.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
zxcvvcxz 14y ago
Sorry for the stupid question - how can I watch the talk right now? The "CLICK HERE" didn't bring me anywhere.
- OneFourSeven 14y ago
  It was in the join the webcast link, but the talk is now over.
- juiceandjuice 14y ago
  Here you go: http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/videologger.php?target=120523-ee380-300.asx http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/videologger.php?target=120...
juiceandjuice 14y ago
For those who missed the webcast: http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/videologger.php?target=120523-ee380-300.asx http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/videologger.php?target=120...
- Nrndr 14y ago
  This link doesn't seem to load any video. :/
hongquan 14y ago
This was such a great talk. The best comment was from the Professor when someone in the audience asked about being a single founder.
- anamax 14y ago
  Thanks but I wish that I had come up with a nicer way to say it. (And, I'm not a professor - I'm officially a part-time lecturer but I really just introduce speakers.) Perhaps "There's nothing wrong with working on something for a long time but real founders ship".
architgupta 14y ago
The part about being holed up in an apartment resonated with me. I worked for a startup in the valley and then moved to India to start a new company. So being in a place where running a tech company is not the default is a lot of friction! Its talks and videos which help I think.

73 points by juiceandjuice 14y ago

Great talk. Favorite quote so far: "The thing that we've noticed is that the longer you spend at a big company, the worse of an entrepreneur you are."

rmATinnovafy 14y ago
Quite profound. Companies seem to thrive on sould crunching. My own experience leads me to believe so. But would the inverse also hold true? Is unemployment a fuel to entrepreneurship? The longer you are unemployed or under employed leads to one just going for it?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- soup10 14y ago
  I'd imagine that the number of successful entrepreneurs that couldn't find employment if they wanted to is pretty low. Personally, and from what I've seen, entrepreneurs and self-employed people just really really don't like working for 'the Man'. Even if 'the Man' is a great employer.
- SkyMarshal 14y ago
  Opposite of big company != unemployed||underemployed. Could be working for startups, starting a startup, grad/school, independent contracting/freelancing, etc.
aswanson 14y ago
Yeah, I think staying at a big company is a proxy for a few things that can work against entrepreneurship: risk aversion, used to "playing a role", divorce of your daily thinking from the marketplace... It's like at BigCo you become a specialized, mature cell. Startups require stem cells, ready to adapt into whatever the market requires.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

zxcvvcxz 14y ago

Sorry for the stupid question - how can I watch the talk right now? The "CLICK HERE" didn't bring me anywhere.

OneFourSeven 14y ago
It was in the join the webcast link, but the talk is now over.
juiceandjuice 14y ago
Here you go: http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/videologger.php?target=120523-ee380-300.asx http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/videologger.php?target=120...

juiceandjuice 14y ago

For those who missed the webcast: http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/videologger.php?target=120523-ee380-300.asx http://ee380.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/videologger.php?target=120...

Nrndr 14y ago
This link doesn't seem to load any video. :/

hongquan 14y ago

This was such a great talk. The best comment was from the Professor when someone in the audience asked about being a single founder.

anamax 14y ago
Thanks but I wish that I had come up with a nicer way to say it. (And, I'm not a professor - I'm officially a part-time lecturer but I really just introduce speakers.) Perhaps "There's nothing wrong with working on something for a long time but real founders ship".

architgupta 14y ago

The part about being holed up in an apartment resonated with me. I worked for a startup in the valley and then moved to India to start a new company. So being in a place where running a tech company is not the default is a lot of friction! Its talks and videos which help I think.