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How many ice cream glove submissions are there to VCs from people with no ability to follow through whatsoever? 100% of startups that don't start fail. That i

by mrtron 18y ago

How many ice cream glove submissions are there to VCs from people with no ability to follow through whatsoever? 100% of startups that don't start fail. That is a huge impact on the numbers. Personally, I have 100% chance of succeeding with my startup (with my definition of success).

jag 18y ago
Folks - i would rather be roughly right than absolutely wrong and the point was that almost all startups fail to ever deliver any meaningful return to anyone other than investors. The "math" was simply to make a point to get people to think about. Even if its 1% or 2% or even 5% that succeed meaningfully (i.e. founders make a lot and lots of employees become millionaires), that still is a pretty darn small percentage. And the point is that if you don't enjoy, aka love, the journey and challenges of a startup, then you should not join or start one.
- swombat 18y ago
  I don't see why "founders make a lots and lots of employees become millionaire" is a valid definition of success. I have a friend who ran a web business largely by himself for 4 years and accumulated half a million pounds out of it. I'd certainly call that successful. Based on more reasonable criteria, e.g. made the founder(s) a tidy sum and/or allowed them to pay themselves a decent salary for a while, many more than 5% are successful, imho. As for your main point about loving the journey, I agree with that. I enjoy working on my business and to me that's more important than the money I'll make from it. PS: If you wanted to be roughly right you should have said, simply, "A lot of start-ups fail." No one would have argued with that! :-)
  - jag 18y ago
    that's how i started by saying "most startups fail..."! ;-) and yes there are startups that return a nice amount to a small group. my first company, Trio Development, was sold to Apple. we were 4 guys, no venture funding, and 23 years old and were psyched with the outcome. the point is that way too many people come out to silicon valley thinking their startup is going to be the next google or even a smaller success like a mysql being bought for a billion dollars, and the fact is that most don't happen that way, so make sure you love what you are doing regardless of whether its a big success.
    - swombat 18y ago
      Couldn't agree more! :-)

by mrtron 18y ago

jag 18y ago

Folks - i would rather be roughly right than absolutely wrong and the point was that almost all startups fail to ever deliver any meaningful return to anyone other than investors. The "math" was simply to make a point to get people to think about. Even if its 1% or 2% or even 5% that succeed meaningfully (i.e. founders make a lot and lots of employees become millionaires), that still is a pretty darn small percentage. And the point is that if you don't enjoy, aka love, the journey and challenges of a startup, then you should not join or start one.

swombat 18y ago
I don't see why "founders make a lots and lots of employees become millionaire" is a valid definition of success. I have a friend who ran a web business largely by himself for 4 years and accumulated half a million pounds out of it. I'd certainly call that successful. Based on more reasonable criteria, e.g. made the founder(s) a tidy sum and/or allowed them to pay themselves a decent salary for a while, many more than 5% are successful, imho. As for your main point about loving the journey, I agree with that. I enjoy working on my business and to me that's more important than the money I'll make from it. PS: If you wanted to be roughly right you should have said, simply, "A lot of start-ups fail." No one would have argued with that! :-)
- jag 18y ago
  that's how i started by saying "most startups fail..."! ;-) and yes there are startups that return a nice amount to a small group. my first company, Trio Development, was sold to Apple. we were 4 guys, no venture funding, and 23 years old and were psyched with the outcome. the point is that way too many people come out to silicon valley thinking their startup is going to be the next google or even a smaller success like a mysql being bought for a billion dollars, and the fact is that most don't happen that way, so make sure you love what you are doing regardless of whether its a big success.
  - swombat 18y ago
    Couldn't agree more! :-)