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Comment by puranjay | Hacker News Reader

This comment from Tucker Max's article on why he stopped angel investing bears repeating here:

> "But when you have a lot of money chasing all these great ideas, and you combine it with the fact that entrepreneurship has gotten sexy in the last few years and become the “in” thing for a certain crowd, what you end up with is a huge number of people starting companies who have no business at all doing that."

http://observer.com/2015/08/why-i-stopped-angel-investing-an...

I've said this to tons of people privately and publicly: entrepreneurship has become the new "I'm working on a novel". Lots of people have good ideas in their heads. That doesn't mean they should be building businesses on them.

Some people are just not cut out to be entrepreneurs. And once the money dries up, these will be the first ones to go.

The rest will continue building businesses because they can't really think of doing anything else.

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"I've said this to tons of people privately and publicly: entrepreneurship has become the new "I'm working on a novel". "

An interesting statement to mention. In the distant past, writing a novel would be seen as a rather impressive and lofty goal. But as the barriers to writing novels decrease, so too does the actual impressiveness of a novel.

As technology makes startups easier to create, startups themselves should begin to lose their luster as well.

Ever young entrepreneur, or future entrepreneur should read this. In my youth, I made some real money because I saw opportunities, and took some big chances. I wish I could go back to these days--blindly taking chances. I just did things without hesitation. As I've aged, I've gotten too conservative. That said, I would have made 10x the amount--if I had more experience in life, and my real deficiency at the time; a good understanding of our legal system. Looking back on my business endeavors, I should have been with an older/more experienced partner. At the time, I thought older people didn't have anything to add. I was one of those guys who didn't trust anyone over thirty. I was so wrong.

>Some people are just not cut out to be entrepreneurs. And once the money dries up, these will be the first ones to go.

But why care? Some make it some don't, everyone who wants to should try.

Because when a company goes down, everyone working at that company loses their job. The business owner isn't the only one that suffers for "trying".

Following that logic, everyone who loves will probably be broken hearted at some point.. So probably shouldn't try..?

You take chances. Sometimes they pan out, most of the time not, but it's all part of life.

We're all going to die anyways.

It's not just about "jobs" it's about opportunity costs. If tons of money is invested in marginal businesses that don't pan out, then we end up with a zombie economy that is busy performing useless labor/services and we end up stuck like Japan has been for the past decade or more.

If the same money is invested in good ideas that pay off, we end up with everyone being better both financially and we have better tech and services. Part of the reason why these marginal businesses can get along is because borrowing has been cheap and there has been a shortage of good ideas to invest in, so it's a catch-22.

I think anyone who follows the advice of Tucker Max, America's biggest no-apologies frat bro, should not be taken too seriously.

You still got it wrong for who you should be investing in: People who have a vision driving them to the core, who can't imagine not seeing their change happen. People who just want to start businesses "because they can't really think of doing anything else", are people who just want the lifestyle or equate it with personal freedom or something. They don't have much of an edge.

> You still got it wrong for who you should be investing in: People who have a vision driving them to the core, who can't imagine not seeing their change happen.

This is a start, but only a start. I've run into plenty of these "types" who don't have the skills or experience to launch a successful startup. The question shouldn't just be "Do I have the passion for this?" but also "Do I have the abilities to execute this?"

Is there any reason to think that your advice is correct? Any kind of study showing a correlation between "a vision driving someone to the core" and success?

That idea, while a very good soundbite, flies in the face of the evidence - almost all startups shift their idea, sometimes quite a bit, before becoming successful.

Is that like, a double ad hominem?

My comment wasn't about him as a human being. It was about him as an investor and businessman - two things he's been successful at.

Has he? What's the benchmark for someone in his position who goes into investing, and how does his performance compare to it?

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