4 ms·

It feels to me that a lot of these ideas are hackish and serve only the purpose of getting funded, an easy money scheme. There are genuinely unoriginal ideas. A

by rfnslyr 13y ago

It feels to me that a lot of these ideas are hackish and serve only the purpose of getting funded, an easy money scheme. There are genuinely unoriginal ideas. An image host. Like hundreds of other image hosts don't exist? Why did you get funded? I don't understand. When I think of ideas, the perspective I view the idea from is whether or not it solves a significant problem in daily peoples lives. A lot of these startups, don't solve anything. I'm interested in your extended response regardless of my stance. Is it just guys that have too much money and fund startups hoping that 1 in 100 of the funded ones will eventually make them billionaires? That's currently what it seems like.

patio11 13y ago
There are far easier ways to get money than raising money for a startup. If two founders raise, say, $500k, under most circumstances they'll work a lot harder and earn a lot less than just working for Amagoobooksoft as engineers. (Remember, it doesn't magically become their money. They'll be expected to spend it on employee salaries, and employees are much, much more expensive than anyone who doesn't have employees thinks they are.) I wouldn't get too jealous of their lot in life, because it will cloud your judgment. Is it just guys that have too much money and fund startups hoping that 1 in 100 of the funded ones will eventually make them billionaires? Again, you're letting sour grapes color your perceptions here. Broadly speaking: "Make lots of bets, lose lots of bets, but have some money invested in [without loss of generality: Google]" is, in broad strokes, the model. Note that there is no reward for being original. Google wasn't. ("Another search engine? Please. And their portal is much worse than Yahoo's.") Facebook wasn't. ("So it's like MySpace but with 1/1,000th the users? Great idea, Harvard dropout.") etc, etc. In terms of what makes a startup fundable: http://venturehacks.com/articles/unfundable-startup http://venturehacks.com/articles/unfundable-startup In general, with exceptions which would be pretty obvious to a hypothetical founder if they applied, a hypothetical founder is fundable if: + They are located in proximity to investors who routinely fund companies like theirs + They are addressing a market with potential to make $10M ~ $100M (seed stage, angels, and early VC funding) to $X00M a year in revenues, at a minimum. + They've got a team who "look like winners", for very subjective versions of that. Graduated from a good school, worked for one of a few firms with known high hiring bars (AmaGooBookSoft, etc), had a high-impact role at a previously successful startup (first hire or first VP engineering at a company which exited or is a shoe-in to do so, etc), etc etc. + They are clearly capable of shipping great product. What makes a great product? Um, investors "know it when they see it", but suffice it to say that high-caliber design is very big right now. + Traction. In brass tacks: $X0,000 of monthly recurring revenue or millions to tens of millions of free users but growing fast. Less at early seed stage, but you should ideally be able to demonstrate it in micro-scale. (e.g. If you can show $1,000 of ad spend got you 4 customers and their LTV is probabalistically above $1,000 then you're in a much better position than if you can't, even if $4,000 doesn't really ring any bells for investors.) Now, let's contrast this to a hypothetical guy. Guy has big dreams. Guy probably has not shipped a product. If Guy has shipped a product, Guy got 20 people to look at it once, but no one still uses it. Guy lives in the Midwest. Guy graduated from a respectable (but not name-brand) school. Guy worked has worked the last few years as a freelancer. Guy has not convinced a second guy to join him on his crazy adventure. Guy has an idea which Guy thinks is awesome but which Guy has not succeeded in actually selling to 10 customers or instantiating on the desktops or home screens of several thousand users. Guy will have a very, very difficult time raising funding.
- rfnslyr 13y ago
  Now, let's contrast this to a hypothetical guy. Guy has big dreams. Guy probably has not shipped a product. If Guy has shipped a product, Guy got 20 people to look at it once, but no one still uses it. Guy lives in the Midwest. Guy graduated from a respectable (but not name-brand) school. Guy worked has worked the last few years as a freelancer. Guy has not convinced a second guy to join him on his crazy adventure. Guy has an idea which Guy thinks is awesome but which Guy has not succeeded in actually selling to 10 customers or instantiating on the desktops or home screens of several thousand users. Guy will have a very, very difficult time raising funding. Stabbed me right in the heart. Pretty much what I'm doing now. Thank you for the article and your response.
  - tptacek 13y ago
    That's not a penetrating wound to your chest you're feeling. It's just gas. You shouldn't want to get a company funded. You should want to build a company. If you have initiative and drive and perseverance, which you'd need anyways to succeed at a funded company, you're in a lot of ways better off in the Midwest working outside the pageant system. Want a couple of examples? How about me and Patrick? I'm in Chicago, and Patrick lives in the Tulsa of Japan.
    - patio11 13y ago
      No, the Tulsa of Japan is 11 minutes away on the train. I live in the Norman, Oklahoma of Japan. (Come over and I will give you the tour. It, uh, won't take long.)
      - wglb 13y ago
        Wow, cool. You have a national severe thunderstorms center there?
    - rfnslyr 13y ago
      It's just you hit the nail on the head and perfectly described my situation. Right now I'm working on a mobile labour job marketplace with a low barrier of entry. Jobs like snow removal, cutting grass, simple errands. House owners can post a task, set a schedule for that task, and set a monthly budget for said tasks. Workers can view these tasks and areas, sign up for the task, at which point the house owner would review that workers profile to determine whether they are a good match. I like this idea because it would enable people to make quick money (teenagers, jobless people) and it would simplify the process much more. I think it's a great idea and I'm spending every second of my time researching and developing, I'm really excited about this and I really think it will take off. So that's my situation, just working on a prototype now. I'm not crying about not being funded, just wondering why so many mediocre startups are funded. Thanks for your response!

by rfnslyr 13y ago

patio11 13y ago

There are far easier ways to get money than raising money for a startup. If two founders raise, say, $500k, under most circumstances they'll work a lot harder and earn a lot less than just working for Amagoobooksoft as engineers. (Remember, it doesn't magically become their money. They'll be expected to spend it on employee salaries, and employees are much, much more expensive than anyone who doesn't have employees thinks they are.) I wouldn't get too jealous of their lot in life, because it will cloud your judgment. Is it just guys that have too much money and fund startups hoping that 1 in 100 of the funded ones will eventually make them billionaires? Again, you're letting sour grapes color your perceptions here. Broadly speaking: "Make lots of bets, lose lots of bets, but have some money invested in [without loss of generality: Google]" is, in broad strokes, the model. Note that there is no reward for being original. Google wasn't. ("Another search engine? Please. And their portal is much worse than Yahoo's.") Facebook wasn't. ("So it's like MySpace but with 1/1,000th the users? Great idea, Harvard dropout.") etc, etc. In terms of what makes a startup fundable: http://venturehacks.com/articles/unfundable-startup http://venturehacks.com/articles/unfundable-startup In general, with exceptions which would be pretty obvious to a hypothetical founder if they applied, a hypothetical founder is fundable if: + They are located in proximity to investors who routinely fund companies like theirs + They are addressing a market with potential to make $10M ~ $100M (seed stage, angels, and early VC funding) to $X00M a year in revenues, at a minimum. + They've got a team who "look like winners", for very subjective versions of that. Graduated from a good school, worked for one of a few firms with known high hiring bars (AmaGooBookSoft, etc), had a high-impact role at a previously successful startup (first hire or first VP engineering at a company which exited or is a shoe-in to do so, etc), etc etc. + They are clearly capable of shipping great product. What makes a great product? Um, investors "know it when they see it", but suffice it to say that high-caliber design is very big right now. + Traction. In brass tacks: $X0,000 of monthly recurring revenue or millions to tens of millions of free users but growing fast. Less at early seed stage, but you should ideally be able to demonstrate it in micro-scale. (e.g. If you can show $1,000 of ad spend got you 4 customers and their LTV is probabalistically above $1,000 then you're in a much better position than if you can't, even if $4,000 doesn't really ring any bells for investors.) Now, let's contrast this to a hypothetical guy. Guy has big dreams. Guy probably has not shipped a product. If Guy has shipped a product, Guy got 20 people to look at it once, but no one still uses it. Guy lives in the Midwest. Guy graduated from a respectable (but not name-brand) school. Guy worked has worked the last few years as a freelancer. Guy has not convinced a second guy to join him on his crazy adventure. Guy has an idea which Guy thinks is awesome but which Guy has not succeeded in actually selling to 10 customers or instantiating on the desktops or home screens of several thousand users. Guy will have a very, very difficult time raising funding.

rfnslyr 13y ago
Now, let's contrast this to a hypothetical guy. Guy has big dreams. Guy probably has not shipped a product. If Guy has shipped a product, Guy got 20 people to look at it once, but no one still uses it. Guy lives in the Midwest. Guy graduated from a respectable (but not name-brand) school. Guy worked has worked the last few years as a freelancer. Guy has not convinced a second guy to join him on his crazy adventure. Guy has an idea which Guy thinks is awesome but which Guy has not succeeded in actually selling to 10 customers or instantiating on the desktops or home screens of several thousand users. Guy will have a very, very difficult time raising funding. Stabbed me right in the heart. Pretty much what I'm doing now. Thank you for the article and your response.
- tptacek 13y ago
  That's not a penetrating wound to your chest you're feeling. It's just gas. You shouldn't want to get a company funded. You should want to build a company. If you have initiative and drive and perseverance, which you'd need anyways to succeed at a funded company, you're in a lot of ways better off in the Midwest working outside the pageant system. Want a couple of examples? How about me and Patrick? I'm in Chicago, and Patrick lives in the Tulsa of Japan.
  - patio11 13y ago
    No, the Tulsa of Japan is 11 minutes away on the train. I live in the Norman, Oklahoma of Japan. (Come over and I will give you the tour. It, uh, won't take long.)
    - wglb 13y ago
      Wow, cool. You have a national severe thunderstorms center there?
  - rfnslyr 13y ago
    It's just you hit the nail on the head and perfectly described my situation. Right now I'm working on a mobile labour job marketplace with a low barrier of entry. Jobs like snow removal, cutting grass, simple errands. House owners can post a task, set a schedule for that task, and set a monthly budget for said tasks. Workers can view these tasks and areas, sign up for the task, at which point the house owner would review that workers profile to determine whether they are a good match. I like this idea because it would enable people to make quick money (teenagers, jobless people) and it would simplify the process much more. I think it's a great idea and I'm spending every second of my time researching and developing, I'm really excited about this and I really think it will take off. So that's my situation, just working on a prototype now. I'm not crying about not being funded, just wondering why so many mediocre startups are funded. Thanks for your response!