Why do you want to pursue a startup?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2079

by amichail • 19 years ago

13 24 19 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

amichail• 19 years ago

For me, it's all about creativity. I love trying out new ideas.

rms• 19 years ago

Entrepreneurship is the only way to transcend the class structure of American society.

Without college educated parents, you are born into the lower (working) class. You can move up to the upper (professional) class in a generation by getting a college education and working a professional job for a major corporation.

A lifetime of corporate work provides no means to advance to the ownership (ruling) class. I refer to people like Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney, the Waltons, and Bill Gates as uber-capitalists -- they have enough money to truly make an impact on society at large.

I'm starting a company now so I can be able to make a true positive impact on the world in my lifetime.

Alex39172• 19 years ago

Creating something of great value to others is the ultimate challenge. It makes everything else look like a joke.

jwecker• 19 years ago

And (for me) to create something beautiful. The products; the processes and machinery of the business; the carefully crafted image; the thriving corporate culture; the systems for watching the market, the competition, and the systems for maximizing the money that you and your employees can thrive on. To see someone you've never met seriously passionate about your product. To be able to craft and share the results of your imagination- having a piece of yourself in the hands of thousands- enriching their lives and creating opportunities for them.

All of it created with sweat and anxiety, most aspects failing at some point and being brought back from the brink. I can't think of a more complex system to build- needing inspiration and creativity and luck in so many disciplines- with unlimited capacity when you finally get it right.

Alex39172• 19 years ago

Beautiful.

dfranke• 19 years ago

Two reasons, which both boil down to "freedom":

1. So that I can spend my time implementing my own vision rather than someone else's.

2. For the money, which gives me the freedom to decide who is worth impressing.

JMiao• 19 years ago

Meaningful work that inspires others.

palish• 19 years ago

People are forced to use tools that are inadequate or clumsy. I want to help those people.

iamelgringo• 19 years ago

It fits who I am as a person better than anything else that I've tried.

I don't think I can avoid it... I've tried, but I keep coming back to the idea of starting a business.

I enjoy the creativity and the stimulation.

To solve the money problem.

danielha• 19 years ago

I don't want to be pre-Matrix Neo.

Actually, the last company I interned with was a very nice place to work. The atmosphere was casual, the people were great, and I found lots of interesting things to work on.

Some people fear that a life comparable to Dilbert's awaits them if they get on the corporate track. Others, including me, realize that one can be creative and successful in the corporate world.

But that's not for me. Nothing compares to building and actualizing my own vision. I mentioned my internship earlier -- it was a great experience, but I realized that this wasn't for me. My co-founder feels very similarly and it was from this mindset that our best ideas came about.

Founding a company has always been one of my most consistent aspirations and there's never been a better time to go for it. And my final reason: it's fun as hell.

zaidf• 19 years ago

Because I don't feel like doing anything else.

-Zaid

papersmith• 19 years ago

By having our works exposed to the market, we get direct feedbacks that erase some of our delusions we have about ourselves, so we can have peace of mind and don't live the rest of our lives unconsciously envy those who we perceive to be less capable than us.

johnlongawa642• 19 years ago

I've spent the last two decades making other people rich. I've worked on cool stuff but been ordered to do dumb things. Yeah, I got patents and promotions but the time I spent preparing for them, or implementing DRM or copy protection could have been better spent making better products. I want to make myself rich this time (or at least a little better off) by focusing on something that someone really needs - not a fickle consumer, but a business customer who will pay to be able to do something faster or cheaper or with more precision, or to do something that wasn't previously possible. A month ago I walked and I'm not looking back.

pictperf• 19 years ago

My company recently went through layoffs and it seems that the only people who got canned were the ones who have been there for 15+ years. These layoffs didnt seem to be performance based. They seemed to be "size of pay check" based ( people who have been there longer obviously make more money that the newer people). I don't want to be the "guy who got laid off" in 10 years time ( I've been there for 6 yrs). I want to make enough money to be able to decide whether or not I have to work, and not be forced to be "code monkey" for a large company, that won't even bat an eyelid when its time for them to show me the door.

davidw• 19 years ago

I want to make stuff that doesn't suck with people that don't suck, and I want a piece of the risk and rewards.

python_kiss• 19 years ago

"This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time." While we are at it, we might as well create something beautiful. YouTube, Google, and MySpace managed to change the very lifestyles of its users; if you could build something that amazing, why wouldn't you? :)

Whatever we do here will eventually be lost in time. And those who do remember our dream, they too will inevitably perish. To me, creating something of great value to others is the only reason why we even matter. Besides that, our worth is simply that of the atoms that make us.

Put simply. a startup is my opportunity to change the world.

volida3• 19 years ago

Ithaca

As you set out for Ithaca

hope your road is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:

you' ll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.

May there be many summer mornings when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind -

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you're destined for.

But don't hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you're old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you've gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you wouldn't have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

K.Kavafis

volida3• 19 years ago

come on everyone, stop denying it!

you just want to conquer the world ;)

whatsreal• 19 years ago

WOO HOO!! I'll join you. :) In all seriousness, its about building something that I can say "Yeah, that was me." not hide my face anytime someone mentions the product. It is nice to have the freedom to build effective, beautiful products, and the money is a nice kicker too, but it really comes down to not regretting my life. 20, 30, or 40 years spent building things for other people, things that aren't the best, or things that aren't pride inspiring, its not for me thank you.

volida3• 19 years ago

come on everyone, stop denying it!

you just want to conquer the world ;)

rhmason2• 19 years ago

Because I want to get it right this time. In my previous startup I never felt more alive, creatively engaged and felt like I was doing the best work of my career. Life is short and no job holds the attraction to me that a startup does.

sszhou• 19 years ago

we each have one life to live, this makes the most of my life and takes the most out of it.

paahijen• 19 years ago

Basically following reasons -

I read somewhere that paul said he wanted to do via-web to solve the money problem once and for all. I think that is a real good motivation.

Second, probability of trying 15 different things in next 5 years and having one homerun is not as low as one would be tempted to think.. That still saves you 20 years of doing job and you are firing on all cylinders when you really are doing what you like the most, so the odds definitely are with you...

Third there is a certain degree of ego satisfaction when 1000s of people are using what you created (again one starts with a hope right?)

Why do you want to pursue a startup?

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