
Bankers and lawyers jump ship for tech startups - nitashatiku
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/07/19/fever-pitch-new-yorkers-go-starry-eyed-for-start-ups/
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cagenut
Made me think of this video:
[http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6535519/hardly-working-
sta...](http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6535519/hardly-working-start-up-
guys-internet-week)

Add "the type-A squares start to get in on it" as bubble-checklist item number
umpteen-dozen.

~~~
ovi256
>Add "the type-A squares start to get in on it" as bubble-checklist item
number umpteen-dozen.

First thing that came to my mind too. When drone lambda gets on it, it's time
to get out of it :) Financially speaking. As working places, tech companies
are still the best places for engineers, of course.

The part that best put it for me was: "she realized sometime in the middle of
April that she needed to do an Internet start-up for something."

I simultaneously recoiled and felt attracted, as I very well feel the same
way, and now I wonder if the fact that I'm engineer legitimizes my urge at
all, compared to hers.

~~~
byrneseyeview
Of course it does. If a lawyer has an urge to sue someone, that's way more
legitimate than an engineer's urge to do the same thing. (Just read the
comments on that AaronSW thread to see how well the average engineer can
interact with the US legal system.)

I don't have a technical background, so I was _really, really cautious_ about
embracing startup ideas, mostly because of how easy it would be for the
business guy (i.e. me) to be a total poser.

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itg
"On a recent muggy evening, about 70 mostly 20-something, mostly male guests
gathered in clusters on a rooftop in Chelsea for the summer’s first “Find a
Cofounder” party, squinting at one another’s name tags as the sun set. Red
name tags were for programmers; blue meant you were more of a business guy.
The blue name tags ran out by the time Betabeat got a drink."

Sounds like a gathering of Winklevii types.

~~~
Jgrubb
You know, I actually went to a Hackers & Founders meetup back in 2009 as a
wanna-be founder just trying to meet some folks and see what the NYC scene was
all about.

It was a LOT of fun talking to folks about ideas and technology and all that,
but I noticed the ratio of Hackers to Founders to be about 1/10, and my market
presented itself thusly.

It took a little while to become a Really Useful Programmer, but I've been
busy as hell all year. Thank you YC!

~~~
daveambrose
Thanks for coming! It's been great meeting all of you over the last two years
at H&F.

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yardie
It's a bit like being a celebrity and dealing with papparazzi. After the last
bubble (and being a freshly-minted graduate) I couldn't get a job in computers
and slid through the tech support back entrance. Now with lines under my eyes
and a slight case of CPS I can't even bring up my profession without someone
handing me a business card.

Conversation goes like this:

?: So what do you do?

me: I'm a programmer.

?: Really?! Hey, I got this great idea for site, doing warble, warble, warble,
warble......

~~~
diolpah
This does not reflect the experiences of any developer I know. Is this a local
phenomenon? Do you live in silicon valley?

~~~
yardie
It's probably regional. Any place that has a high flux of MBAs; in my case
NYC, Miami, London, Paris. Usually its a copy of an already successful model
or a mashup of 2 already successful models.

Recently, someone asked me about my thoughts on a location based photosharing
service (twitter meets flickr). I was honestly interested in it then a few
weeks later Instagram came out. Most of the time I either get the ideas that
are completely infeasible or too pedestrian.

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cheez
Glad to see there are some real businesses in this article as opposed to "the
next social network".

Businesses don't need to have big ideas that have never been tried before.
They need to be good businesses that make money for their owners and provide
value for their customers.

If you are after the cool factor: get a good income going from a business
first. That frees you up like nothing you've ever experienced.

~~~
diolpah
This. We're running a startup environment inside an income-producing business,
and I really do think it's the best of both worlds.

If you are in this position, you will not be at the mercy of the investment
climate for survival when the bubble bursts. Having been in the latter
position in 2000, I can attest that it is by no means enjoyable.

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shakes
Is it bad that as a developer stories like this sometimes scare me?

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yalogin
So this is a broader trend. A friend who works for GS called up the other day
and tells me he is thinking about investing or setting up his own startup. I
was surprised because he left tech and became a banker. Oh well.

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zamfi
Can't find a quote right now, but this reminds me of what folks were saying
about the real estate bubble: when your lawyer/doctor/grandma starts telling
you about the next big thing, you know the bubble is close to popping.

That said, I'm not sure if the bubble is about to pop, or if we're just
witnessing the beginning of a shift back to smaller companies and
entrepreneurship.

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joshuacc
_“I definitely don’t want it in the newspaper,” he said. “I’m worried that
even little sign posts toward what I want to build are dangerous.”_

While I understand just keeping quiet about something you think is a good
idea, this combination of hype* and paranoia seems really strange to me.

* Probably only in his own mind.

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antiterra
I don't see anything wrong with plucky, versatile can-do Americans trying
their hand in the entrepreneurial world while client-thirsty law firms shrivel
and growth-dependent banks chase rainbows in Singapore and Malaysia. I'm sure
there are plenty of "Type-A Squares" who I'd rather be working alongside
instead of Bilbo the QA Guy with a $300 cache of Thinkgeek crap and a "sudo
make me a sandwich" t-shirt.

I also know a number of now-competent technical professionals who got their
start on the ground floor of the Bay Area's bubble simply because they could
recognize an ethernet cable and mouth the term with a minimal amount of saliva
escaping from the convergence of their lips.

Now, if we can figure out what to do with all our skilled auto-industry
workers, we'll be set.

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jsemrau
Greed is a bad motivator to startup. A high profit margin is usually the last
thing a customer wants.

~~~
ig1
You're confusing high-profit margin with high-profit.

A company can be high-profit without a high-margin (i.e Supermarkets) or it
can be high-margin without high-profits (many fashion labels).

Greed is a motivator for high-profits, not necessarily high-margins.

~~~
jsemrau
No, sorry to say, but I am not.

Every corporation should be in the business to maximize profits. A high profit
margin should normally relate to a higher price which will lead to a less
optimal acquisition and retention of customers. A larger customer base
provides stability for sustainable growth.

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collateral
Ugh.

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clobber
Just what tech startups need- more clueless MBA types telling the engineers
what to do.

I'll cite this:
[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2081930,00....](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2081930,00.html)

