
Everything I need to know about startups, I learned from a crime boss - FluidDjango
http://gigaom.com/2012/01/07/desantis-startups-crime-boss/
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zaidf
Very underwhelming.

His point about risk is very unclear and/or misleading. He suggests we should
think big vs small. It's almost insulting to read an article this vague. What
do you even mean by small and big? As far as I know, businesses that aim to
make 2M/yr rev have a better shot than ones that must make 100M.

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rabbitonrails
Better still to find an opportunity that has a chance of making it to $100mm
if everything goes perfectly, but might end up at $2mm on a bad run.

Bootstrap so you don't have the pressure to 100x for an investor, and so you
can pull out some of that $2mm once it starts flowing.

~~~
InclinedPlane
This is silly dot com 1.0 math.

It's easy to point out how $2mil a year might be only 1% or even 0.001% of the
total size of some particular market, but that's irrelevant. No amount of
business is guaranteed. $2mil is still $2mil, it's still x number of people
each ponying up y number of dollars, for pretty significant values of both.
Without a compelling product and a solid brand you have no guarantee of that.
There's no such thing as a business venture that makes $2mil in a worst case
scenario. The worst case is always losing money.

~~~
rabbitonrails
The numbers are arbitrary, so it would have been better for me to say
"business models that produce nonzero revenues even when things go wrong are
superior to business models that return nothing unless everything goes right,
especially for bootstrapped companies".

The counter argument is that the latter kind of business models (e.g. social)
have much higher potential payouts due to scale. But I believe one doesn't
have to look too hard in the first category (e.g. SAAS) to find billion dollar
opportunities that collapse into million dollar ones if the winds change.

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j45
Beyond the seeming nostalgic waxing about one's street cred about knowing a
criminal...

WHAT WAS CLEAR:

\- Pick things that make money first and scale. I agree with this but you
might as well be speaking Klingon to those interested in funding but not
figuring out if it makes money first..

\- If you learn how to make money you can decide more of what you do and where
you go.

\- If you can find a cash cow (instead of a cash calf), grow it.

NOT SO CLEAR:

\- Crime boss started small and scaled out in size and into side products, but
we should do as he does now and pick big markets instead of picking small
things like he did when he started out? Maybe I misread.

\- I don't know what small, or large business the writer has successfully
started where he can state which is harder.

\- The clear takeaway

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lifeisstillgood
Err, just a small comment.

Crime Boss. _Crime_ Boss.

How many people has he killed, either personally or by order. Did those
murders, leg breakings or threats help scale his business in the early days.
Is this an approach patio11 should use?

#justaskin

~~~
paulhauggis
It's about the business aspect of a crime boss, not all of the killing and
other things that go along with it. The same business and human nature rules
apply to both crime bosses and multi-million dollar business owners.

IE: If you run an illegal drug-dealing business, you still need to worry about
supply, demand, and marketing (although the marketing is a little different).

~~~
FredBrach
_although the marketing is a little different_ rolol

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jrberger
The path to money for criminal entrepreneurs is WAY quicker and less
financially risky than non-criminal startups.

Drug dealers don’t sell drugs. Drugs sell themselves... You will never hear a
drug dealer say: How am i gonna get rid of all this Crack? ~Chris Rock

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sasha-dv
This article reads to me as "What I learned from watching Scarface and
pretending to have connections with underground." I know I'm ranting, but what
can you say about this bunch of vague cliches?

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fedd
> He would have built Birchbox rather than Pinterest and Airbnb rather than
> TripAdvisor. He would have found product market fit and a viable business
> model before spending money on development resources.

i understand they have enough physical risk so they avoid spreading money in
hope that some unclear possibility will succeed.

i wouldn't like non-criminal investors be that (financial) risk averse,
otherwise we won't get many new interesting businesses. let 9 of 10 startups
fail, but the 10th would be google. (and the 9 wouldn't wear cement shoes)

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fedexman
Ok, so this crime boss was successful and he follows these philosophies but
let's keep in mind that crime pays well because it's illegal.

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Tichy
If he really was such a good entrepreneur, why didn't he choose to create a
legal business? Sorry, but I don't think organized crime is cool.

~~~
Tichy
Downvoted by the Gangstas on HN? Oh well... :-)

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lojack
> Don’t shit where you eat

Learned that one from my puppy.

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FredBrach
Keyser Söse;)

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donalddesantis
Thx Stan. Glad you got something from it.

~~~
CurtHagenlocher
By the way, it's a _pallet_ of cash, not a "palette".

</petpeeve>

~~~
mahmud
wouldn't a cash _palette_ just be #00ff00 ?

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stanmancan
Wow, very well written, inspiring and a pleasure to read.

