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A 'startup' need not be something in
Silicon Valley, based on information technology,
venture funded, and intended for an exit at
$1+ billion. Working at GM, GE, IBM, Cisco, or any of a long
list of other famous, big companies tends to
be a long walk on a short pier and not a 'career'
with which one can get hired, buy a house,
support a family, grow in prosperity, pay for
college for the kids, and retire comfortably. Why? Such a career needs to last about
45 years, and in all
of the history of the US since the Industrial
Revolution there has been only a tiny fraction
of jobs in large corporations that could be
the basis of such a career. E.g., might have
joined IBM in 1950 and then, 44 years later,
lost the job when the company lost $16 billion
and went from 407,000 employees down to
209,000 and cleared out rush hour traffic jams
in a large chunk of Upstate NY. That was about
the best shot at a 45 year career in IBM: Join
before 1950? IBM was not much of a company then.
Join IBM after 1950? Likely the job would last
less than the 44 years of my example. GM? Shipped
most of its jobs out of the US, helped Detroit
and much of Michigan and much of the Midwest
Rust Belt look like a war zone, and went bankrupt. GE? Discovered that good products made in Japan
sold quantity 1 retail in the US for less than
the direct, marginal manufacturing cost at GE,
and GE closed down big chunks of their business. So, what's keeping people in the US employed?
Mostly small businesses, especially ones with
a geographical barrier to entry. Such businesses
do need to be started and, thus, are startups.
The US has millions of such businesses all
across the US in big cities down to towns
that are just crossroads. Net, startups
are most of what is keeping the US economy
running. So, the broad idea that startups are rare
and strange with a lot of obscure aspects
is a bit silly. E.g., long lists of points
of tricky advice on just how to do a startup
are a big silly for nearly all US startups.
E.g., in my neighborhood, the guys mowing
grass show up with a relatively new truck
worth, say, $30,000, towing a trailer with
at least one lawnmower worth maybe $15,000 --
could plug together quite a server farm
for that much cash. |