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First start-up success is very rare as well, so perhaps it should follow that it involves a rare breed of people. I didn't say all his startups were successful

First start-up success is very rare as well, so perhaps it should follow that it involves a rare breed of people. I didn't say all his startups were successful ;) His third (I think) startup, the current one, is quite successful though, and he hopes to be able to sell it for at least a billion eventually. Current estimated valuation is a quarter of a billion with at least 50m in VC (don't know the exact numbers). About ~60 employees. On the topic of the GP post: you talk about a "businessperson who magically acquired hacker skills"--but is it somehow more likely to have a "hacker who magically acquires businessperson skills"?

donaq 18y ago
Yes, I do think it is more likely, because "businessperson skills" are skills that an observant and intelligent person might pick up in the normal course of his life, for example, arithmetic. I think business is very simple. Profit. Loss. Take the sales, subtract the costs, you get this big positive number. The math is quite straightforward. - Bill Gates Then there's negotiation/persuasion/deal-making/people skills. Most people engage in activities involving variations of those everyday. You'd almost have to be a hermit to avoid picking up some people skills. While some hackers may halfway fit that description, I doubt that most do. Acquiring hacker skills, OTOH, involves rather more specialized effort.