

Should You Do A Startup? I Have No Idea - diego
http://diegobasch.com/should-you-do-a-startup-i-have-no-idea

======
tferris
The reasons doing a startup are totally irrelevant. For some it's money, for
other power, status, passion or whatever. It's not important _why_ you do a
startup. These are just drivers and they are good because they push you to
start—push you beyond your boundaries. Are these the right reasons? Nobody
cares.

 _It's important just to do something, to start and to carry on._

Even if it will get very hard it's the most satisfying experience you'll never
regret—you learn, you do, you make decisions. Looking back every single day I
spent as an employee was a waste of time.

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Slightly disagree.

Yes, doing a startup for the wrong reasons is totally reckless and will end in
tears. Chasing money and fame its a recipe for failure.

However taking the risk on startup without a reason or purpose will equally
end badly.

Starting a startup is hard therefore you need to accept reality and pursue a
purposeful reason.

~~~
tferris
Even if you do a startup for 'wrong' reasons like chasing money and fame at
least _you did something_ , hell you learned something and made mistakes.
That's what's all about! What's the alternative? Staying employed and missing
all your life?

It's the experience, it's the way and not the goal.

Discussions around doing or not doing a startup are just excuses for oneself
to not start something because it's not the right idea, not the right time,
not the right co-founders, not the right setup and suddenly these people are
50, missed everything and are full of fear loosing their crappy job.

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Why cannot one gain the experience by pursuing something for purposeful
reasons rather than 'just for the hell of it'?

Lessons learned and battle scars are important but why not make it meaningful?

~~~
DavidAbrams
Like what?

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Definitely not against building a startup. However instead of building another
photo sharing social media site why not build a better way to raise money for
charity, or solve a difficult problem in your field of expertise.

Why kill yourself for five years on a problem or pursuit you are not 100%
passionate about?

~~~
paulhauggis
"Why kill yourself for five years on a problem or pursuit you are not 100%
passionate about?"

I will kill myself for 5 years on those ideas once I've made money with a
photo sharing type idea.

------
jandrewrogers
People who genuinely have the psychological characteristics that would make
them ideally suited for a startup are unlikely to care if other people think
they should do a startup.

People that would not do a startup because they are told "don't do a startup"
are precisely the people that should not be doing a startup. The details of
the argument against doing a startup almost do not matter.

~~~
larrys
I agree with you but it also depends on the particular person and their
background also. For example I did a "startup" and succeeded right out of
college. But I had always done business things on the side. And I came from a
business family. So it was second nature to me when it came time to start
something and I had plenty of confidence and it was encouraged by my family
(not directly "go do it" but by the lack of negativity.) Had I come from a
family of, say, educators or scientists, I don't think it would be the same.
Unless of course there was some external reason they were supportive (reading
about it or knowing another child of a friend that succeeded or other
evidence). Only one example of course but I remember at the time my gf's
mother cringing at what I told her I was going to do (after graduating from
Wharton no less).

If you've traveled the world (I haven't) you are definitely going to feel more
comfortable picking up and just going to another foreign city. You feel
confident about that even if you, in general, lack confidence. I'm sure I
would have more anxiety than you would even with my confidence that might
cause me not to take that journey.

I do agree with the "told don't do a startup" and listening most likely don't
have the personality to overcome many of the obstacles that are involved.

------
mryan
"As for the ones that have gotten to that sort of scale, it is open for debate
whether they've changed the world at all, and, if they have, whether they've
done so in a way that is meaningful or has improved the circumstances of
mankind."

This sums up my problem with the whole 'change the world with your startup'
philosophy. What does 'change the world' even mean? It is a fluffy, nebulous
term - the startup thinker's equivalent of 'increasing synergy by leveraging
strategic partnerships'. If you like that flavour of Kool Aid, great, drink
up!

Github has changed the world by making it easier to find and share interesting
code. Balsamiq has changed the world by making it easier to create mockups. I
want to change the world by making it easier to run your own game server [0].

None of these things will go down in history as revolutionary, life-changing
ideas at a global scale. But they can improve the lives of a subset of
humanity, while letting their owners solve interesting problems and
(hopefully) earn a living at the same time. That, to me, is a good enough
reason to do a startup.

0 - shameless plug: <http://www.cloudfrag.com>

------
stephengillie
If you have to ask, then the answer is no. If you _know_ the answer is yes,
then the answer _is_ yes.

~~~
diego
That's one of those phrases that somehow rings true. However, you may be
surprised by the number of "accidental" startup founders who turned out to be
successful.

------
tdr
I think the idea behind "don't do a startup" is to warn and discourage people
that want to do it because it's cool.

The fundamentals behind starting a startup should be orders of magnitude
stronger than that. You'll know if you got them.

While I think the startup experience should be tried by anyone (and by the
way, I don't think startup life sucks, but it is hard), I hope it won't turn
into an international trend where every "social" site equals a multi-million $
business.

~~~
diego
By the same token, why bother discouraging people? It's the same as saying
"stay in school, don't do drugs. Don't try to be a rockstar like me." There's
only so much need for startups and so much money to go around. To me, the
original article was just an excuse for this guy to "humblebrag."

~~~
tdr
That's why I said it should be tried by everybody: you learn a lot. Most
likely "the hard way".

But nothing good can come out when people jump into it without a proper
preparation & plan.

------
sundeep_b
I too got the same feeling that who is this guy to tell me not to do a
startup? Worse, he also says what I should do(go to banking/finance where I
can make money or keep collecting paychecks). Hell, I love writing code and
building stuff compared to doing banking. So, if I ever earn something, I will
try to get it by building something.

Thinking again - he's had a successful startup and no doubt a hell lot of
people ask him advice and all these points he gave are for those kind of
people. Though he didn't highlight it, he said not to do it for the wrong
reasons. Right and wrong are sometimes relative, right? Anyways, apart from
this advice and he calling the Evernote a second brain, the other info about
how he saw confidence in his business and how important it is for customers to
stay than pay were really useful. Unfortunately people are talking more about
the beginnings than endings. May be he's fed up with a lot of people asking
for advice and this is how he publicly declared his answers for such people.

------
lazerwalker
When I was considering a career as a musician and actor in middle school and
high school, there's a piece of advice I was given many, many times by my
mentors and teachers: "Only pursue a career in the performing arts if you
can't see yourself being happy doing anything else. It's hard. You will face
countless rejections, and even after that you'll most likely never make it
big. But if you can't see yourself being happy do anything else, go for it."

If you think you could be just as happy working for a large company, you
should probably go do so. Entrepreneurship is tough, and if you can find
satisfaction from a job that doesn't have the monumental downsides that doing
a startup does, you're probably better off steering clear. If that's not the
case, and if for whatever reason you can't imagine yourself working anywhere
other than a startup, do it. Don't feel like you need to tell people that
they're doing it for the wrong reasons, or that you need to justify your own
reasoning to those sorts of people.

------
sherwin
I think the original article (the talk by Phil Libin) was targeted for a more
general audience, which qualifies his suggestion not to do a statup. Libin
writes:

"I’ve narrowed it down, really boiled it down, to one core piece of advice. If
I can only say one thing, and I don’t know you any better, it’s: don’t. Don’t
do it. Seriously."

The key part here is "If I can only say one thing, and I don't know you any
better" -- for MOST people, starting your own company is not a good idea!
Especially if you'd be doing it for any of the misconceptions that Libin
outlines.

However, it is odd that Libin chose such an approach given that he was
speaking at a conference with a big emphasis on web start ups.

~~~
tferris
Libin chose this topic in order to provoke, to get press and attention for
Evernote.

~~~
Aftershock21
May be he meant as a sarcasm given the success of Evernote!

~~~
sundeep_b
Sarcasm? Only from that talk, I don't think he has it that much. It felt like
he was talking expecting laughs from the audience, but, he was able to get
quite a few towards the end.

------
DodgyEggplant
One thing I'll tell you: the decision will not be easier next year.

~~~
Estragon
That's interesting. What are you expecting to change?

~~~
wsc981
I guess what he means is every year you'll be more settled in your current
situation. And if things change (getting a steady relation, kids, buying a
house, earning more money), the choice is harder to do a start-up.

------
tehayj
I do startups because I like the challenge and like to show others that I can
dominate the system and run things with little effort involved.

I dropped out of a regular job in a design company after half a year and will
never return to something like that.

For me a startup is a challenge to do things better, smarter than established
companies.

------
flavien_bessede
"Do, or do not. There is no 'try.'"

~~~
diego
About it tell me. Unless rugby you're playing.

------
Schwolop

      Phil says the only valid reason to do a startup is to "change the world." 
    

Phew. I'm doing it for the right reasons after all.

~~~
DavidAbrams
Same. The world's population of rich fuckers will be +1.

------
kamweti
it takes two years to start a company
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3110632>

you can do it too <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBCz9XE57LY>

------
fara
Should you? Indextank was a great product, but the exit was to work for the
big boss again.

~~~
diego
It's significantly different though. I can't go into much detail, but being an
acquired founder is not the same a being a hired employee.

------
maz29
Hey, i'm really interested in reading this but the site is down. Thanks!

------
DavidAbrams
Yeah, I like taking this advice from a company that had no business model, no
revenue, and nothing to do with "changing the world."

