

Is saving the world a viable startup goal? - hahahanononono


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pg
Depends exactly what you mean by it, but there do seem to be beneficial
projects that are best organized as for-profit companies. For example, I doubt
a nonprofit would have done as good a job at search or email as Google has.

I wrote about this phenomenon here: <http://paulgraham.com/good.html>

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loceng
Being a not-for-profit company doesn't mean you can't generate revenue /
profit and therefore be unable to pay for R&D; I suppose Google couldn't have
IPO'd then to fundraise a large amount quickly, so there is that.. What Google
had and was important though was a core technology and philosophy of the
founders, who then with the additional money were able to take the time to
develop and evolve a solid company direction and culture.

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loceng
Yes, though there's a lot to understand to be able to efficiently save the
world; Every little bit and effort helps, though.

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cjmagee
Contradictory goals? Saving the world generally means selfless work for the
common good. Startup generally means creating a new business with the goal of
making yourself rich. (I know that will piss a lot of people off.)

But if your goal of saving the world works out, you'll get rich on the
speaking fees.

