The obvious equivalent for the HN crowd:
"Here is $50k. Now quit your job and start a start-up"
Difficulty bonus -- startup idea is generated by a Markov chain and could be anything -- "Uber for dogs", "Taxidermied pets as drones" etc.
"Here is $50k. Now quit your job and start a start-up"
Difficulty bonus -- startup idea is generated by a Markov chain and could be anything -- "Uber for dogs", "Taxidermied pets as drones" etc.
2. You get a paycheck, even if it's less than market rate.
3. It's fun and exciting to use someone else's money to try to come up with a new business type.
Most startups are not able to raise money from outside investors. In fact I'd say outside of the Stanford student/graduate/dropout crowd, it's probably less than 1%. The other 99% also don't get paychecks because they can't draw from investment capital they never got.
Your odds of succeeding at a startup may not be better. With powerball, you are risking $2 for 292 million to 1 odd. With startup, you are risking several thousand multiples of $2 in opportunity costs for potential return that might be at best 10x.
As a founder you don't get a paycheck unless you raise decent amount of OPM. There are 100s of founders who fail to raise any funding for every one who raises some. You just don't hear about such founders. Same applies to your point 3. You should talk to people who have raised OPM and the handcuffs they operate with.
Obligatory (previously posted here): http://www.aviato.com/quiz
Customers (drawn from the rational HN crowd) pick lottery numbers and pledge not to play the lottery for a period of time (selectable from a really cool animated dropdown). At the end of the period we mail them the amount saved on tickets or, in the unlikely event the numbers actually came up, lost by not playing.
As premium paid service, infinite period of time with physical printed yearly reports and cool framed diplomas to hang on the wall.