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by awesomeMilou 977 days ago
> start a blindingly successful company with wild ARR and then spend it how you want it to.

So you mean actually innovating in the space that your products occupy and become market leader there? Maybe in a niche that no one occupied before?

IDE's before JetBrains were complete ass-backwards, no wonder they're so successful.

> That's what shareholders do too. No one knows what's right. They only know the outcome they like, not how to get there.

Maybe don't start out trying to build a product that requires an instant 10 million dollars in cash injection? Before the recession there were YC backed startups on here that offered products that hat no market fit outside the silicon valley bubble.
1 comments
renewiltord 977 days ago
TSMC started with $58 M at $200 M valuation in the late 1980s. I think it’s like 15% annual growth rate since then and the centerpiece of a nation’s geopolitical doctrine. You can build rocket ships in many different ways. You get all sorts of outcomes.

No one really knows outcome till they give it a shot. People used to make fun of the idea of a software guy building spaceships and cars and he’s doing it better than the incumbents. No one knows what will work till it’s done.

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awesomeMilou 977 days ago
TSMC wasn't bootstrapped in the stricter sense though. Those 58$ million came from Phillips, who also provided the technology and skill transfer for their first manufacturing process.

> People used to make fun of the idea of a software guy building spaceships and cars and he’s doing it better than the incumbents.

Reducing the success of SpaceX to Elon Musks persona alone is, realistically speaking, delusional at best. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

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renewiltord 977 days ago
Exactly. TSMC wasn’t bootstrapped. It’s okay to build products that require a large amount of capital to start. Many of them are very successful.

As for Elon Musk. Many had access to the labour pool that he did. Many tried to do what his companies did. His companies succeeded. Once could be chance, twice is skill. But to each their own.

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