
Start-Up Kids Grow Up to Be Millionaires So Fast - jmorin007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040802798.html
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byrneseyeview
"They called the company Boso ("Buy Online Sell Online"), unaware of the
clownish connotations that word would have in the States."

It wouldn't be Levy if it didn't have a grating line like this. Of _course_
nobody could have a successful Internet presence with a name that connoted
stupidity or ignorance -- what kind of yahoo would think otherwise?

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pc
Levy is right, though -- "as in, bozo?" is the response of most Americans when
they hear the name spoken.

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phaedrus
The thing that bothers me is you only tend to hear about the successes, so
it's hard to get a feel for the true success/failure ratio.

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sah
Yes! I thought about this while reading Founders at Work. Beyond just the
success/failure ratio, there's all the other details we don't get about failed
startups. Can you identify what went wrong by reading their story? Can you
learn from their mistakes, or at least temper what you think you've learned
from the successes with examples of how it doesn't always work out?

I'd love to read another book like Founders at Work, but all about failed
startups.

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hooande
That sounds like an interesting idea, but I'm thinking that the line between
success and failure is composed of luck and interpersonal relationships.

Most of the stories in FaW involve meeting a key person, an important external
event or being in the right place at the right time. It's very hard for
someone to say "Well if we had talked more with this one person, I think that
we would have stumbled into a great situation a few years later"

Likewise I've seen a lot of situations where personal relationships make the
difference. Two founders disagree and one of them just has to be "right", even
if there is evidence that their plan isn't best for the company.

So maybe you can work out the characteristics of failed startups by looking at
the inverse of the characteristics of successful startups. I'm thinking that
they would be: don't be committed to the product, don't explore every
relationship and don't have an open mind about new opportunities.

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parker
I would postulate that a funding or acquisition event depends on meeting a key
person or having a key external event happen. Making something people want,
however, is not dependant on any external event.

It's really not just luck. If you get a lot of traction, the chance of those
fortuitous things occurring simply increases.

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pchristensen
I think millionaires are made. Billionaires (or hundred-millionaires) need
luck.

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Alex3917
This is a dupe of the Newsweek article.

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Mistone
totally! - impressive pr pick up of this story though

