7 ms·

For A Stranger In Silicon Valley, Success Isn’t Only About Who You Know

45 points by vanwilder77 14y ago

louischatriot 14y ago
tldr version: http://tldr.io/tldrs/50ba19a9cfbff44a4d000441 http://tldr.io/tldrs/50ba19a9cfbff44a4d000441 I can relate to most of it even though I don't work in the Valley. Especially the "make friends and listen to their insights" part. We are friends with a few more experienced team and everytime we talk I learn something.
- sneak 14y ago
  This (tldr.io) feels like the future.
  - rohamg 14y ago
    it's an achilles heel that tldr's two-sided marketplace relies on one side being busy/hurried enough to sacrifice content for convenience while the other is expected to have available time and generosity of heart to write meaningful summaries. for me at least, the problem isn't "too much to read", it's having a sense of the quality of an article before deciding to spend the time reading it. hence why i skim HN comments before deciding to click through.
- LiveTheDream 14y ago
  I think tldr.io is neat, but repetitive self-promotion is really not appropriate here (not to mention that these self-promoting comments don't even disclose that you are one of the people behind tldr!). Most of your recent comments are the same type, and you even had a self-promoting submission killed already. Please stop. Thanks!
  - 4clicknet 14y ago
    I found the tldr link to be useful. I think that if the content is relevant then there's nothing wrong with self-promotion. I looked at the comment history and he linked to tldr in 7/10 of his last comments over the last week. That doesn't seem excessively repetitive, although a disclosure might be appropriate.
  - louischatriot 14y ago
    You're right we may be posting to many of these these day. That's not pure self-promotion as re really think they help people get the gist of very long articles (remember the immortal jellyfish story?) but of course we shouldn't spam HN.
nlh 14y ago
I know this refrain has been repeated often, but I'll take the bait again: The tone of this article, like so many, continues to perpetuate the notion that Startup Success(TM) = Raising VC Money. Lest we forget our past (1999-2001), it is in fact possible to build a _business_ -- that happens to be in the startup stage of life -- that actually generates revenue and, dare I say, profits. Both may be small at the outset, but perhaps enough to get the ball rolling. Maybe even enough to scale (slowly). Then, if there's a real opportunity and you think some outside funds might help scale quicker/better, you could raise some money. If you really need it. (And though many of these lessons will still hold true then, the process will be quite different and less of a 'game'. I assure the budding entrepreneurs out there that the old adage "Banks want to lend money to people who don't need it" holds true for VC as well.)
- Cherian 14y ago
  Author & Co-founder here. Sorry if this sounded that way. I didn’t in any way try to imply raising money = success. In fact raising capital pushes you to succeed faster, which in some ways is not the right strategy IMHO. You need your organic growth. That said, with Cucumbertown the relationship with our investors have grown to such a level that money has become least of the value they have added to our startup. You essentially have people on you side who can open doors for you with an email or phone call. These investors are mostly entrepreneurs of previous era who have incredible insights and connections that spell the difference between success and failures. Cucumbertown, 4 weeks into launch has 2-3 such examples already. Cucumbertown didn’t intend to raise funds. It happened to us serendipitously. In retrospect, that’s probably the best thing that happened to us yet from a business development perspective.
  - nlh 14y ago
    No apologies necessary - and your point is great :) Good investors definitely add to your network -- the definition of "smart money" (vs "dumb money") is that you're taking on a partner who's going to help you in more ways than just paying the bills. Thanks for writing up your experience Cherian and good luck with Cucumbertown. Looks like a cool site.
- 14y ago
diego 14y ago
Honest question to the author: given that you haven't been successful yet (at least from the information in the article), why do you think you're qualified to give advice about how to be successful?
- 001sky 14y ago
  The advice seems qualified to networking/fundraising.
jjtheblunt 14y ago
"whom"
jjtheblunt 14y ago
"whom"

45 points by vanwilder77 14y ago

tldr version: http://tldr.io/tldrs/50ba19a9cfbff44a4d000441 http://tldr.io/tldrs/50ba19a9cfbff44a4d000441 I can relate to most of it even though I don't work in the Valley. Especially the "make friends and listen to their insights" part. We are friends with a few more experienced team and everytime we talk I learn something.

sneak 14y ago
This (tldr.io) feels like the future.
- rohamg 14y ago
  it's an achilles heel that tldr's two-sided marketplace relies on one side being busy/hurried enough to sacrifice content for convenience while the other is expected to have available time and generosity of heart to write meaningful summaries. for me at least, the problem isn't "too much to read", it's having a sense of the quality of an article before deciding to spend the time reading it. hence why i skim HN comments before deciding to click through.
LiveTheDream 14y ago
I think tldr.io is neat, but repetitive self-promotion is really not appropriate here (not to mention that these self-promoting comments don't even disclose that you are one of the people behind tldr!). Most of your recent comments are the same type, and you even had a self-promoting submission killed already. Please stop. Thanks!
- 4clicknet 14y ago
  I found the tldr link to be useful. I think that if the content is relevant then there's nothing wrong with self-promotion. I looked at the comment history and he linked to tldr in 7/10 of his last comments over the last week. That doesn't seem excessively repetitive, although a disclosure might be appropriate.
- louischatriot 14y ago
  You're right we may be posting to many of these these day. That's not pure self-promotion as re really think they help people get the gist of very long articles (remember the immortal jellyfish story?) but of course we shouldn't spam HN.

nlh 14y ago

I know this refrain has been repeated often, but I'll take the bait again: The tone of this article, like so many, continues to perpetuate the notion that Startup Success(TM) = Raising VC Money. Lest we forget our past (1999-2001), it is in fact possible to build a _business_ -- that happens to be in the startup stage of life -- that actually generates revenue and, dare I say, profits. Both may be small at the outset, but perhaps enough to get the ball rolling. Maybe even enough to scale (slowly). Then, if there's a real opportunity and you think some outside funds might help scale quicker/better, you could raise some money. If you really need it. (And though many of these lessons will still hold true then, the process will be quite different and less of a 'game'. I assure the budding entrepreneurs out there that the old adage "Banks want to lend money to people who don't need it" holds true for VC as well.)

Cherian 14y ago
Author & Co-founder here. Sorry if this sounded that way. I didn’t in any way try to imply raising money = success. In fact raising capital pushes you to succeed faster, which in some ways is not the right strategy IMHO. You need your organic growth. That said, with Cucumbertown the relationship with our investors have grown to such a level that money has become least of the value they have added to our startup. You essentially have people on you side who can open doors for you with an email or phone call. These investors are mostly entrepreneurs of previous era who have incredible insights and connections that spell the difference between success and failures. Cucumbertown, 4 weeks into launch has 2-3 such examples already. Cucumbertown didn’t intend to raise funds. It happened to us serendipitously. In retrospect, that’s probably the best thing that happened to us yet from a business development perspective.
- nlh 14y ago
  No apologies necessary - and your point is great :) Good investors definitely add to your network -- the definition of "smart money" (vs "dumb money") is that you're taking on a partner who's going to help you in more ways than just paying the bills. Thanks for writing up your experience Cherian and good luck with Cucumbertown. Looks like a cool site.
14y ago

diego 14y ago

Honest question to the author: given that you haven't been successful yet (at least from the information in the article), why do you think you're qualified to give advice about how to be successful?

001sky 14y ago
The advice seems qualified to networking/fundraising.

jjtheblunt 14y ago

"whom"

jjtheblunt 14y ago

"whom"