
Lessons from a 40 year old (now with transcript) - aresant
http://a.wholelottanothing.org/2012/03/my-webstock-talk.html?
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thaumaturgy
I'm 33, and a lot of this has been occurring to me lately too. I still waffle
over "lifestyle business" versus "startup", but as time goes on, I feel more
and more attracted to the lifestyle business.

Startups are making a lot of people very wealthy, and many of them aren't
people that might become as wealthy were it not for the startup scene. Still,
there's something that really stuck with me a while back: pg's favorite
sandwich shop was closing, and he had to appeal to others to try to save it,
because he didn't have the liquidity to do much himself.

I think sandwich shops are important. And, I realize that the vocal majority
on HN considers value measured in dollars, so if I said that I thought that a
good local sandwich shop was just as valuable as, say, Zynga, that would
probably generate this huge argument that wouldn't generate any value for
anyone.

But, if value is measured in terms of what's important to people -- well,
Zynga's a lot easier to do without than a good local sandwich shop.

So I think I'd like to put myself into a position to save a sandwich shop once
in a while. Or maybe even have one of my own, as a hobby. For that matter, I
think there ought to be better programs for things like sandwich shops that
helps them stay out of trouble.

And more and more, I think lifestyle businesses are a better way to reach
those goals.

~~~
smashing
I clicked that arrow up and am commenting because I started feeling the same
way once I turned 30, in fact I'm now 33. Sometimes I am concerned that my
beliefs are a measure of my cultural experiences and not arbitrarily based on
my success. In the latter case success would be defined by something like
money and not by in personal achievements which is the domain of the former.

So, I too started a "sandwich shop", but instead of Real Estate and food, I
build productivity tools in the Apple App Store and sell them through my own
company (which I own). I figure helping people by making work-related tasks
automated is a manner in which I bring joy to my community, (the community of
people who own an iOS device). I don't feel a need to disrupt the world
anymore. Or maybe I'm getting old and I've given up on big things and instead
am working on improving/automating the small things.

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semisight
That was a really great read. It's always good to see the other side of the
coin; whereas Y-combinator promotes a build big and fast (hare) environment,
there are definitely advantages to being the tortoise, especially if you
consider that you aren't even running the same race.

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guylhem
It's a great article and it asks the right questions, but it puts aside what I
consider the biggest problem : impact.

A lifestyle business means to me a life with a very low impact. It can
certainly be a good life, but can't we do better for mankind? If the best and
the brightest just care about getting a comfy lifestyle, what sort of examples
does it sets?

~~~
patio11
How many people do you need to affect, and at what level of salience, does a
business need to hit to graduate from low impact for you? Just give me a
number and a suitably important problem, I will find you high impact lifestyle
businesses and low impacted funded businesses.

~~~
guylhem
Wow, downvotes.

Just to make it clear- I didn't want to disrespect anything you did or the
original article (which I did upvote - something I don't do very often), but I
like to dream big and I'd like do something good - real good.

If you want some numbers and a problem, say improving the healthcare of at
least half a million persons in a first world country where there are no so
many low hanging fruits.

I'd think about say merging lab results from various source and running
predictive analysis software or gathering imagery (say CT scans) and see if
some computer vision techniques could outperform human interpretation - such
as detecting abnormals images very early on.

Things like that would require a decent size and funding.

Then I see DrChrono (YC funded BTW) - wow, a glorified ipad data entry form.
It is interesting and will certainly do some good, but it seems not so
ambitious unless they plan to keep the data and exploit it later, but I don't
think HIPAA would look the other way if they did :-/

So you could certainly be right, but at the moment I believe that most
lifestyles business aim at low impact problems, if only for a matter of scale.

And to be crystal clear on that - I'd be delighted to be proved wrong.

~~~
patio11
Ooh nevermind examples of low-impact VC businesses, I like that example even
more.

You can improve the healthcare of over 500,000 Americans by successfully
outcompeting the nation's primary healthcare communications and recordkeeping
technology: Mk1 Reprocessed Wood Pulp. If you think that glorified data entry
doesn't improve healthcare, you're optimizing for sexy but not really
optimizing for impact.

A similarly unsexy problem is making sure people actually come to the doctor's
office by telephoning them to remind them to come to the doctor's office. (The
folks who most urgently need to be at the doctor's office are least capable of
successfully making that happen without outside assistance.) This is
approximately 2% a technical problem, 3% a compliance problem, and 95% a sales
problem.

You're welcome to your own guesstimate of whether one can hit 500,000 patients
served without taking VC funding. I have my own guesstimate.

This post brought to you by the letters N, D, and A and the number $LOTS.

~~~
guylhem
Changing the medium (dead wood to electrons) will not IMHO make a difference.

However the "unsexy" problem you mention is an excellent example. I wouldn't
call it unsexy. It's something that would be nice and interesting, even if low
on technical complexity, and there is a clear and mesurable outcome.

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sumukh1
> "I feel like Ycombinator in particular takes too much ownership stake from
> such a low investment (10% of your company for $6k/founder of investment?
> That seems insane)"

I wonder if this is actually an issue. I don't see any founders complaining
about YC's equity (perhaps due to self-selection). Have founders ever needed
more money than what YC and Start Fund but not enough to justify raising a
round?

~~~
matthaughey
I mentioned that specifically because I've invested myself in a few startups
and typically I only get 1% at most for sometimes much more money than what
Ycombinator offers.

~~~
alexkearns
I for one specifically did not apply to Y Combinator this year because of the
big stake/small amount of cash they offered, though would have loved the
mentoring and publicity. Six per cent for $6,000 per founder might be okay if
you are a couple of guys or gals with an idea but if you are already
profitable, it just does not make sense.

There almost needs to be a Y Combinator for small-but-already-profitable web
businesses, offering much better terms.

Great talk, btw, Matt. As a fellow bootstrapper, it resonated with me.

~~~
JamesPeterson
Commercial banks offer what you're seeking. In our local scene when one of our
cash-flow+ portfolio companies is seeking further capital for expansion, often
debt is a better (cheaper) option than taking on VC investment (if they're CF+
they shouldn't be seeking angel terms!). We've actually had a big bank
actively trying to sell such debt.

If you're CF+ and need capital, talk to your bank.

