[7e]

Startups make tons of money for the startup factory. They don’t work out for the average founder. Of 4000 startups, less than 100 were not ridiculous failures. The rest wasted a good part of the founders’ best years, time that could have been spent enriching themselves in FAANG, or gaining experience on a truely worthwhile projects (YC funds some really dumb shit). And now Paul Graham is indoctrinating these poor kids with the cult of the startup, as more meat for the meat grinder. Must have run out of college students to exploit.

[vineyardmike]

> They don’t work out for the average founder. Of 4000 startups, less than 100 were not ridiculous failures. The rest wasted a good part of the founders’ best years

I'll admit that I've been the FAANG sellout at times, and my partner keeps that steady salary in our household, but I think this take is correct (but myopic), but negative.

Yes, most startups fail, and most startups don't make their founder any money, never mind FAANG money, and def not Bezos money. That said, while YC maybe has 100 happy endings, plenty of people find fulfillment and enough money to pay middle-class bills through "small businesses".

Not every entrepreneur should try to start a hyper growth tech company. Plenty of opportunities exist for people to start consultancies helping small businesses use Ansible, or configure their WordPress site, or whatever. Plenty of people make a living on Shopify plugins, and sales funnel optimization services, and similar. Will all of these succeed? No, all businesses will fail given enough time, and some may do so before making any money and getting any customers.

We, the tech community, need to reclaim the definition of entrepreneurship from venture-backed enterprises (I say on HackerNews...). Individuals forging their own path, providing value they generated themselves are entrepreneurs even if they never made $100M ARR.

Don't try to start "Google", try to start "Larry and Sergey's new Website", and go for the ride.

[richrichie]

This.

It is not that different from day trading. One hears mostly about spectacular successes and young people easily miscalculate probabilities.

[max_]

How is giving people $500k to what on what ever they want "exploitation"?

>spent enriching themselves in FAANG

This is some serious tunnel vision nor everyone works at a FAANG. And it is not possible for everyone to work there. Especially if your out of the United States.

Also, the FAANGs with lucrative jobs would not exist if everyone took the "average" route of Job security with high probability of success.

I have worked on two failed startups so far and had a "real job".

I vastly find working on a startup more exciting (even with worse pay & more volatile prospects) than being a cog is some large prestigious corporate machine where your ideas pretty much don't matter.