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> Starting a company is an emotional roller-coaster which becomes much easier when you have someone to share the experiences with This is the argument I hate t

by jwwest 14y ago

> Starting a company is an emotional roller-coaster which becomes much easier when you have someone to share the experiences with This is the argument I hate the most. It's up to you how much of a roller coaster something truly is. For example, I can start a successful side business selling apps. At first, it doesn't pull in much money, but after I work with it for a few years I can hire my first employee, then another, then another. The entire pace of growth is entirely up to you in most types of entrepreneurship with the most notable exception of the VC model which focuses on growth over sustainability. My gripe with the "startup crowd" is that all companies are viewed with the same lens as the hyper-growth VC-backed category. Even the word "startup" has been co-opted and made synonymous to this type. Looks like folks want to co-opt the entire concept of company to mean this too.

mlinsey 14y ago
If you've done this, you've been an extremely fortunate outlier. The people I know who have done "a successful side business selling apps" have had just as many emotional highs and lows as friends who have done venture-backed companies. The problems can be even more acute when you consider that founders who elect to go that route usually cannot quit their day job until the company has started to take off, adding another large source of stress that they have to balance with everything else.
Lightbody 14y ago
I never took funding with either of my two startups, but I still had massive roller coaster moments. I'm glad you had the emotional fortitude to get through it without a hitch, but that has to be an exception and not the rule. Starting your own thing is extremely hard and can be a very lonely place, even after you've hired employees. And that has nothing to do with "pace".
rhizome 14y ago
There is a "startup industry," where VC's, small companies, and acquirers are the players, and deals are the products. Bootstrapped companies aren't a part of this, they aren't "startups," they are simply businesses. In other words, the word "startup" is a signal that someone is talking about the deal industry.

by jwwest 14y ago

mlinsey 14y ago

If you've done this, you've been an extremely fortunate outlier. The people I know who have done "a successful side business selling apps" have had just as many emotional highs and lows as friends who have done venture-backed companies. The problems can be even more acute when you consider that founders who elect to go that route usually cannot quit their day job until the company has started to take off, adding another large source of stress that they have to balance with everything else.

Lightbody 14y ago

I never took funding with either of my two startups, but I still had massive roller coaster moments. I'm glad you had the emotional fortitude to get through it without a hitch, but that has to be an exception and not the rule. Starting your own thing is extremely hard and can be a very lonely place, even after you've hired employees. And that has nothing to do with "pace".

rhizome 14y ago

There is a "startup industry," where VC's, small companies, and acquirers are the players, and deals are the products. Bootstrapped companies aren't a part of this, they aren't "startups," they are simply businesses. In other words, the word "startup" is a signal that someone is talking about the deal industry.