Poll: Are startup founders a minority on HN? | Hacker News Reader

Poll: Are startup founders a minority on HN?

61 pointshalfjoking59 comments

I assumed a lot of people on HN are either a startup founder, a indie hacker trying to sell a product, or aspiring to become one of these things.

I saw a comment saying otherwise so I thought I'd do a poll...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34505219

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I'm in the tech industry. I come here because I see interesting stories posted and intelligent conversation.

I have worked for 2 startups and both failed. I have zero interest in ever starting my own company and zero interest in ever working for a startup ever again.

Let me add that I also have zero interest on insights by startup founders,or their rants,or their top 7 tips or whatever.

Presumably they must be? There's a lot of people on HN. This site used to be called "Startup News", but within a few months had shifted to a broader focus.

Yep, the vast majority of people on HN will be computer/tech nerds simply making the rounds on one of several stops for daily interest-related news/discussion.

What are your other stops, everyone? I mostly us HN these days with an occasional look at Reddit, but not often.

I've found Twitter far more entertaining and often more informational than HN nowadays, which is the same old pessimistic tech worker crowd and content shrug

It's a little weird that there are not past tenses in Poll.

I've been in 3 different start-ups and each has had a different trajectory, but I didn't quit just because we went public (my definition of not-a-startup) so I've got no answer unless I guess the future.

Same boat. Founded a couple of companies (one startup one not). Startup is still running but I'm not very active there. So I put myself as "thinking for the future". I'll probably do another one.

You've been IN but not been a founder correct? This poll is all about that, vs having worked FOR a startup...

> been IN but not been a founder correct?

I’ve been a founder. I am not one now. I am open to being one in the future, though I’d prefer to hire a CEO and guide from behind via e.g. a Chairmanship, if possible.

That gets to whether sweat equity is equity when verbal ownership statements still mean something. Does staying up all night prepping for a pitch meeting and meeting with bankers before the private mezzanine deal when you still have exams count? I mean I draw the line at about 3-5 for founders, but I could see that being smaller or larger.

In the former case, I've been a founder once... if you think the first 20 working for promises of stock are founders, I've "founded" a few. If you think it's only the first person who has the idea that gets 100 people together for a unicorn, then I've never even been in one.

I came here because I heard that interesting news is discussed here. I was here for about a week before I discovered that this place was related to startups. I rarely comment and I have never posted. I keep coming back because of the quality of the commentary, my subjective opinion is that the commentary here is orders of magnitude better than that in other forums discussing interesting news.

> I was here for about a week before I discovered that this place was related to startups.

Took me a lot longer than that. The occasional post I saw, I thought people were being spammy and it was tolerated as a type of Tell/Ask HN as long as it didn't get out of hand.

Wait this place is related to startups? I know it's owned by Y Combinator and occasionally startups will place employment ads here. Is this meant to be the place where founders go?

This was Startup News once. Then it got renamed because pg wanted the name to reflect a wider range of interesting topics and not just startups.

It was also briefly Innocuous News.

You should add "I was a startup founder but now I'm not". :)

I am a business owner who has never taken funding and has no interest in venture capital until they line up around the block to pitch me.

You hade me until the “until”.

I have been told I run a "small business" not a "startup."

So that's what I do and it's not an option in the poll. I would have chosen the second option but I'm not the CEO either, I fairly quickly hired one. I am not qualified to be the CEO. Founder, yes. CEO, no.

You're right - I should have said founder or business owner instead of CEO for that option.

I tried and failed in the past. Doing a standard mid-size corporate job now for stability.

I picked "I am thinking of doing a startup or new business in the future" as I intend to try again one day.

I have founded startups with institutional backing before and am not interested in doing so right now and completely fine with being an IC

these things aren't linear, your poll doesn’t account for that

Worked in startups, and operate some small projects. Not seeking funding. To me, HN seems to have a high signal to noise ratio of information, so it keeps me around.

Was a startup founder. Sold it. No current intention of doing it again, but may change someday. No option really addresses past founders.

I have a feeling this post will be biased towards those who either have founder experience or aspirations – how can that bias be reduced?

That was my thought as well. Right now the vast majority of respondents are in some way startup adjacent, but that seems unlikely unless HN is way more niche than I thought.

The company I work for was founded in the 60's and I don't have an entrepreneurial bone in my body.

Yes, based on the general vibe of replies and discussion I see on HN I would expect more like 80% don't have serious startup aspirations beyond "wouldn't it be nice if..." thoughts

I personally have no interest in taking VC funding (to be honest, I feel like this defeats the purpose of founding a company, which is to have control over it) but currently own a small company (bootstraped side gig) and plan to move to full time when the startup I am currently a FTE at exits.

Beside this, I am wondering what the percentage of users from the silicon valley? I mean, if there are 10 million tech people in Silicon valley, how many of them will often visit HN? Any statistics there?

> "I am thinking of doing a startup or new business in the future"

The last option should be dropped completely.

I have to imagine the majority will never get around to actually starting a company.

Just day dreaming (nothing wrong with that though).

Yeah or at least something like, "I have received at least $1 of revenue from a business I've started"

That wouldn't fit with the other options though. They are all about what you are currently doing, not what you have done. The current options are mutually exclusive, your new suggestion can be combined with all the other options.

My father founded a company which I worked in, starting as a young teenager.

After college I worked at a company founded by one of my chemistry professors.

In a different city found an even better job, with a startup doing commercial research projects. Had equity but they did not have the runway.

After a few years I went to a young little company where I built their lab from the ground up and ran it in a businesslike way. Tasks were about the same as a startup but I didn't own it.

Eventually pressure built for me to start my own company so I did.

That was years ago, definitely will start another soon.

> I am thinking of doing a startup or new business in the future

That might cast too wide a net. Many of us are always "thinking" about it, with varying levels of seriousness.

I'm a past startup founder. Bootstrapped and sold two companies. Taught myself how to program. Wrote the code for two other startups that were acquired.

Even among users that self identify as a startup driven person, there’s wide spectrum of what that means. For example, I mainly doing startups for fun as hobbies, never been motivated to take on funding, or for that matter even take the time to sell any “successful” ones I have managed to fine. To me, I just enjoy the challenge of finding new ways to build businesses, but idea of operating a business is not fun.

What do people who are early engineers (or employees) but not founders count as to you? (Early meaning like first 5 eng, or first 10 employees overall.)

I don't think this poll is targeted at those cases at all. Being a founder is a vastly different situation and risk-profile than even hired Engineer #1

Might be too late now, but a "I've done a startup in the past, but have no plans to do one gain" option might have been interesting.

What a strange assumption. There are probably more students here than startup founders (yeah, I know you can be both).

I feel like HN has skewed risk averse over time, so the start up founders, indie hackers kind of get drowned out

Should there be a thing for "I'm not a founder but may start one some day or join as a founder"?

I'm not even in software anymore

I am a former startup founder who took a (small) exit. It might be nice to add that to the poll.

Founder as an IndieHacker here! Funny enough the product I built is https://swiftpoll.net! Ha, ha! (It makes beautifully made polls!)

Also could add a further category for founders who are on their 2nd or 3rd rodeo. For a lot of folks once is enough and they're back to regular employment, for others it's a life-long lifestyle.

I would have guessed under 1% even in a startup let alone thinking of starting one, then another 80% working in the tech industry and 20% others (people not even in tech but interested in tech).

worked at startups in the past but don't intend to start one. I think in general owning a business is quite costly and time consuming. Depends on your jurisidction of course but in general you'll have to take care of your own healthcare, pension, there's no paid time off and what else have you.

Given the costs/risks I think of starting a business more of something you do if it's the only way to get what you want but I'm weary of it as a sort of lifestyle choice which startup scenes are sometimes eager to advertise it as.

View poll results here https://gabrielsroka.github.io/hnpoll.html?id=34507665

I would be open to being a founder, but I am not one. I've been employee #10 at two startups now though, so I have experience of the growing pains that come with this world

Founders are a small percentage of the population in general. Seeing as this is a public forum I'd expect to see a similar percentage (a bit larger) represented on HN.

I'm a developer with no intention of running a software business right now. I use HN as my primary curated news source (and slashdot)

Voted for first option. Trying to launch https://headlamptest.com

You need a "I started a startup, it did well and so I now actually have time to read the fire hose that is hacker news."

Been there, done that; not likely to try it again. I sure do prefer working for startups, though.

This is a maker community, of which, startup founders are a valued subset (my take).

I'm here to take back the term hacker to its original meaning

- I have started a company that is no-longer operating?

Yes

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