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I strongly agree with your #2. PG's essay makes it sound like you're only a startup if nothing else matters but growth. But if all you care about is growth, doe

I strongly agree with your #2. PG's essay makes it sound like you're only a startup if nothing else matters but growth. But if all you care about is growth, does that make it acceptable to exploit your users Zynga-style? Obviously not to all startups, so even for many startups that are heavily growth-oriented, they are still constrained by other priorities. So why would balancing lifestyle, minimizing dilution, and maximizing founder control not qualify as valid constraints for a "startup" on the principle of growth as a priority? After all, no startup, ever, has grown as fast as they could have if nothing else truly mattered. EDIT: removed a reference to criminal activity deemed to be a strawman

zachalexander 14y ago
Please don't spoil the parent comment's excellent arguments by introducing a strawman. Most organizations have goals - be it growth, profit, advancing a nonprofit mission, or whatever - and in all cases, the rider "Oh, and of course we mean to pursue this end by legal means" is so obvious that, unless we're talking about a criminal organization, it doesn't even need to be stated.
- ryanwaggoner 14y ago
  Meh, perhaps my example was too over the top, but my point is that all startups, regardless of how growth-oriented they are, still consider other goals to be constraints on what they're willing to do in order to grow as quickly as possible. And it seems odd to exclude things like lifestyle and control from the list of valid things.
anovikov 14y ago
Most of the time, startup founders do not have the luxury of 'balancing lifestyle'. It is not themselves who decide how much they work, it is their competition, and it means they have to spend pretty much all the time they have (frequently ruining their families/relationships). Same about remaining within the legal field: it is true only as long as overwhelming majority of the competition also does so. Otherwise you become a criminal, or go out of business, that simple (not related to startups at all, but common for general businesses in many countries). This point is just to explain that the constraints you have are seldomly morally defined, they are set by the environment you operate in (unless you are a total outlier - the idea is exceptionally brilliant, or you have some kind of other competitive advantage which puts you in a totally different league from others).

zachalexander 14y ago

Please don't spoil the parent comment's excellent arguments by introducing a strawman. Most organizations have goals - be it growth, profit, advancing a nonprofit mission, or whatever - and in all cases, the rider "Oh, and of course we mean to pursue this end by legal means" is so obvious that, unless we're talking about a criminal organization, it doesn't even need to be stated.

ryanwaggoner 14y ago
Meh, perhaps my example was too over the top, but my point is that all startups, regardless of how growth-oriented they are, still consider other goals to be constraints on what they're willing to do in order to grow as quickly as possible. And it seems odd to exclude things like lifestyle and control from the list of valid things.

anovikov 14y ago

Most of the time, startup founders do not have the luxury of 'balancing lifestyle'. It is not themselves who decide how much they work, it is their competition, and it means they have to spend pretty much all the time they have (frequently ruining their families/relationships). Same about remaining within the legal field: it is true only as long as overwhelming majority of the competition also does so. Otherwise you become a criminal, or go out of business, that simple (not related to startups at all, but common for general businesses in many countries). This point is just to explain that the constraints you have are seldomly morally defined, they are set by the environment you operate in (unless you are a total outlier - the idea is exceptionally brilliant, or you have some kind of other competitive advantage which puts you in a totally different league from others).