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Yes. I wouldn't say we were passionate about Viaweb. We found some of the technical challenges interesting, we liked the idea of helping our users, we wanted
by pg 17y ago
Yes. I wouldn't say we were passionate about Viaweb. We found some of the technical challenges interesting, we liked the idea of helping our users, we wanted to make money, we didn't want to have bosses, and we didn't want to seem like failures to our friends. But we weren't jumping up and down about e-commerce.
What I did want passionately was (a) to get enough money to be free to do what I wanted, and (b) not to fail. The latter alone is probably enough of a motivator for most people who would make good founders.
- nreece 17y agoIsn't failure an essential catalyst for eventual success? I want to succeed, but I also want to fail.
- pg 17y agoI don't think it's essential. When we invest in people's first startups, we're not doing it just to fund their personal growth. We hope the startups will actually succeed.
- nreece 17y agoI wasn't referring to YC, but your personal endeavour with Viaweb. When you say that you were/are passionate about not failing, I was wondering if you rationally consider failure to be an essential catalyst for eventual success?!
- andreyf 17y agoI was wondering if you rationally consider failure to be an essential catalyst for eventual success?! I don't see any rational reason for failure to cause success. There might be a correlation, since failure might be correlated with experience, and experience with success.
- Tawheed 17y agoI think this is a common misconception in the startup community right now. I'm not reallys sure why, because logically speaking, the longer you survive (i.e. succeed), the more scenarios and learning experiences you can go through. Whereas, if you fail, it's GAME OVER. You're just going to to go through the same experience once again.