Putting your life on the line for a 50% chance to fail

http://drstarcat.com/archives/176

by grosales • 17 years ago

60 26 17 years ago

drstarcat.com

idlewords3• 17 years ago

Summary: dude gives a demo in front of potential investors hoping that the app won't break.

Except, wrapped in several layers of self-aggrandizing drama. An awful lot of hat for very little cattle.

petewarden2• 17 years ago

Pretty harsh. Every entrepreneur I know is on an emotional roller-coaster, but that's one aspect of our role that we don't tend to talk about. Often the toughest issues might seem trivial from an outsider's perspective, or even from your own perspective after some time has passed.

I recognized a lot in his account, and it was good to see someone being honest about the internal drama, even at the risk of appearing ridiculous.

mikeryan• 17 years ago

He's the CEO of a company that may eventually want to get funded.

While I applaud his openness, I wonder if he's shooting himself in the foot by airing this much dirty laundry.

idlewords3• 17 years ago

Well, you know, we've all got problems. I'm sure some people on this site have experienced hardship and risk that goes far beyond flubbing a demo.

zackattack• 17 years ago

I would be very interested in a data point of a successful startup headed by a non-technical founder whose principal role is to harangue and berate and exalt his tech team. Oh, and to make Excel spreadsheets

Periodic• 17 years ago

Isn't that the description of most business men, and thus many entrepreneurs? Isn't that what most manager-types do? They harangue, berate, exalt, go to meetings, have strategic visions, and make Excel spreadsheets.

I believe the CEO of the video game company I used to work at was basically exactly like that. He had been a producer before, and then started his own studio. Granted, his principle role was marketing, business deals, and strategy. He occasionally made comments on design decisions, but everyone knew how to work around him because he didn't know what he was talking about..

theoneill• 17 years ago

http://apple.com

(Steve was medium-technical, back in the day, though IIRC he never designed any of Apple's hardware or wrote any of their software.)

rmason• 17 years ago

Boy reading that piece really brought me back to my own struggles. Truth is you probably have a 75% chance of failure.

It is surprising to me that many years after the fact that you only remember the highs and not the lows.

pchristensen• 17 years ago

The people that remember only the lows wouldn't become entrepreneurs.

jseifer• 17 years ago

This is why I record screencasts for anything that could possibly go wrong in a live presentation. This also frees you from having to remember exactly everything you wanted to do in which order. You only need to remember what you're narrating.

ct4ul4u• 17 years ago

His life is not on the line. He will have the opportunity to take more risks in the future. When he tries out armed robbery, I'll start to believe he's putting his life on the line.

edw519• 17 years ago

This headline is false.

Flipping a coin has a 50% chance to fail, because there's little you can do to affect that probability.

There's a lot you can do to affect the probability of success in a start-up. In fact, everything you do affects that probability.

This is like comparing video poker to a slot machine. On one, you have an opportunity for input. On the other, you don't. So they're not the same thing.

trapper2• 17 years ago

Sorry, perhaps I am doing things wrong, but when I give demos to customers or potential investors it's always with ~1 day old trunk.

Do people really just show screenshots or screencasts?

tom2• 17 years ago

Screencasts are just plain smart when you have your demo, your single shot, your company, on the line. Don't count on the internet working anywhere (especially not a VC's conference room), or EC2 staying up, or your server on your laptop staying up. Give a well paced talk over a perfect screencast and nail it. It's not worth the risk - ever.

trapper2• 17 years ago

I've been doing demo's for years, and have performed hundreds and maybe I have been lucky, but have had no major issues.

Our demos are also usually performed with trunk code or 1-2 days old at most.

How do you handle it when you get a question about a particular aspect and can't show it?

mattcole• 17 years ago

Tough crowd :O I thought it was a really interesting insight into the 'softer' side of starting up, the stress and personal investment of a founder in his company. I know how stressful live demos are even to a fairly sympathetic audience who are going to give you another chance if things go horribly wrong; I could really identify with his description of it knowing how much was riding on it going well.

Good luck to him.

jacquesm• 17 years ago

Why is everybody falling over the choice of words instead of reading the intent ? Clearly putting your life on the line is meant metaphorically, and a 50% chance to fail is probably generous.

Give the guy a break, he's gone the distance, put his money where his mouth is and his future is riding on this, on top of that he's open about it.

Kudos from me, if half the armchair entrepreneur-wannabes in the world would be doing what he's doing it would be a good thing. You really shouldn't discount the emotional roller coaster that a start-up is.

Idle words indeed.

Putting your life on the line for a 50% chance to fail

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