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A false dichotomy. Plenty of people with both families and decent jobs choose to start successful, sustainable, and profitable businesses each year. Some of the

A false dichotomy. Plenty of people with both families and decent jobs choose to start successful, sustainable, and profitable businesses each year. Some of these people are "true believers" in their ideas, and some have other motivators, like potential profits. Not all startups are an all-or-nothing proposition. Nor should they be.

PeterisP 13y ago
Pretty much all new businesses, no matter if they're tech startups or corner stores, have 80+% chance of failing within their first year. You don't get to choose to start a profitable business - you can put your best effort to try and make it so, but even that is just a gamble. If your family can afford the income hit during a failed company without the kids suffering - that's great. But if it can't, but you simply believe that it will be successful - then that's just lying to them and yourself.
- robgering 13y ago
  You are right that people don't choose to start profitable businesses. They aim for profitability. Perhaps I should have written "...choose to start businesses, a few of which will become successful, sustainable, and profitable." But this does not change the fact that the original comment by kashkhan is logically flawed. Starting a business with a family is not necessarily an act of desperation or true belief; it's often a part-time endeavor, completed in addition to familial and work duties with the hope of becoming something more. That one must quit one's day job and dedicate 90-hour-plus weeks to properly do a startup is a myth propagated by venture capitalists who want quick returns on their investments.
  - kashkhan 13y ago
    The intent of startups in the Hacker News context is not mere profitability. I can start selling fruit from a bike part time on the side and make a profit but I don't think many here will count that as a startup. The intent of startups is to make it big. To make it big, 100% effort is a requirement. I am not discounting people who can do 200% (two jobs) but if you want to do a fulltime job plus a startup plus give time to your family, and do all three adequately, you'd have to be superman who needs no sleep. For the rest of us mortals with families that we want to live with and not merely exist with, two full time jobs, one of which is a startup is not possible. We might do it transitionally, but not more than a few months.

PeterisP 13y ago

Pretty much all new businesses, no matter if they're tech startups or corner stores, have 80+% chance of failing within their first year. You don't get to choose to start a profitable business - you can put your best effort to try and make it so, but even that is just a gamble. If your family can afford the income hit during a failed company without the kids suffering - that's great. But if it can't, but you simply believe that it will be successful - then that's just lying to them and yourself.

robgering 13y ago
You are right that people don't choose to start profitable businesses. They aim for profitability. Perhaps I should have written "...choose to start businesses, a few of which will become successful, sustainable, and profitable." But this does not change the fact that the original comment by kashkhan is logically flawed. Starting a business with a family is not necessarily an act of desperation or true belief; it's often a part-time endeavor, completed in addition to familial and work duties with the hope of becoming something more. That one must quit one's day job and dedicate 90-hour-plus weeks to properly do a startup is a myth propagated by venture capitalists who want quick returns on their investments.
- kashkhan 13y ago
  The intent of startups in the Hacker News context is not mere profitability. I can start selling fruit from a bike part time on the side and make a profit but I don't think many here will count that as a startup. The intent of startups is to make it big. To make it big, 100% effort is a requirement. I am not discounting people who can do 200% (two jobs) but if you want to do a fulltime job plus a startup plus give time to your family, and do all three adequately, you'd have to be superman who needs no sleep. For the rest of us mortals with families that we want to live with and not merely exist with, two full time jobs, one of which is a startup is not possible. We might do it transitionally, but not more than a few months.