[bpolverini]

First thing I thought of when I read this was the article by Sam Altman where he calls businesses valued at $100M "really good airplanes."

https://blog.ycombinator.com/navigating-mid-success/

Something is awry in our understanding of moral capitalism at large for statements like that to be met with anything other than derision, and DHH is getting at the heart of why: We've all become obsessed with growth. When the way to get rich in the world is capital gains, as opposed to value creation, the abnormalities in behavior and ethics, which are glorified elements of Silicon Valley culture, fall out as a natural consequence. Having real, powerful values that help evaluate whether something legal is actually ethical means saying "no" to certain kinds of work. God forbid you do that though, lest your investors punish you.

Where your treasure is, your heart will be also. It comes as no surprise to anyone tarrying long over the facts that SV's treasure is gold.

[xapata]

I didn't interpret that Altman article as saying an "airplane" was less good than a "spaceship". In fact, he was saying the opposite, that both kinds of companies are equally impressive.

[mikekij]

^This. The idea that I'm a failure if my company "only" sells for $100M is a recipe for perpetual depression and disappointment.

[Retric]

Yes, even if you only get 0.3-3% of that 100M exit it's going to completely change the equation if you ever try again. Or just do something else with the rest of your life. Further, if you have another exit of that size again your likely to end up with a much larger chunk of the second company. To the point where it's possible to be better off with 2 x 100M exits than 1 billion dollar exit.

[devoply]

Most startup fail. So though yes that's true, the chances of it happening twice are quite small. Even the first chance is quite small, so maybe... dunno have not seen numbers to back up hypothesizing.

[Retric]

The odds are much better that you can repeat after your first success. Most startups fail before gaining significant funding, if you have enough capital to skip the seed stage and a good relationship with investors and have experience with running a startup then you have much higher odds. To use some famous examples, Apple/Next/Pixar, Paypal/Tesla /Spacex/Solar City they both had a weaker startup such as Next and Solar City but leveraged past success to avoid failure.

[mikekij]

Totally agree. My first company raised $300k and sold for between $2M and $10M. Started my second company and immediately raised $1M in a seed round. Having an exit is an excellent signal to future investors. And employees. And acquirers.