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> The concept of entrepreneurism as a small-time life-style has evaporated from the culture, and now entrepreneur and start-up means “get big fast.” No. Get yo
by ef4 14y ago
> The concept of entrepreneurism as a small-time life-style has evaporated from the culture, and now entrepreneur and start-up means “get big fast.”
No. Get yourself out of the filter bubble, because it is seriously warping your understanding of the world.
There are still orders of magnitude more "small-time" start-up businesses in the world than "get big fast" start-up businesses. Your town probably has dozens of them: they're restaurants, roofing companies, independent tradesman, etc. Those people are all doing exactly what you're talking about.
- kjhughes 14y agoCareful. Your valid point is one KK is making too by recommending this book. He's just setting the stage by contrasting this approach with how 'start-up' has come to be associated with "get big fast" in our tech world.
- emmett 14y agoCan you name some examples of successful startups which did not get big fast?
- olefoo 14y ago37Signals, &yet, ColourLovers; just to pick a few examples from those that might be familiar to HN readers. The Googles and the Facebooks, the Yammers and the Zappos's are outliers in terms of scale. That's what makes them interesting.
- kjhughes 14y agoThe very point being made is that Don Lancaster describes how to be successful in business without having to get big fast. KK is merely pointing out how Don did this before entrepreneurism came to be associated with fast growth. Your question and ef4's comment are caught in an attractor of a different debate.
- hemancuso 14y agoThose are called small businesses. When you tell people you are doing a start-up it is deeply implied you're doing something with the hopes of hitting it big. Because if it wasn't you would just tell them you "run a roofing company" or are "an electrician" or "sell stationary on the internet" A start-up, even to non-technicals, connotes an attempt to hit it big.
- pav3l 14y agoExactly, start-up entails growth. http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html
- redguava 14y agoYou realise that's an opinion piece written by one person right? PG has a very specific angle on the start-up world.
- homosaur 14y agoI usually think it connotes some stupid social app.
- baddox 14y agoThe two are far from mutually exclusive.
- byoung2 14y agoIt's interesting how nomenclature changes your perception of a business. It is acceptable for a tech startup, for example, to pursue try to increase adoption rate by giving away a service for free in the hopes of securing investment. It would not be nearly as acceptable for a restaurant to give away free food to get more diners in an effort to lure investors.
- pbreit 14y agoDespite that food actually costs money many restaurants do in fact give away a lot of food in hopes of gaining customers.