Hacker News Reader

Comment by burutthrow1234 | Hacker News Reader

> Please let us all know how that's working out for you in 5-10 years. 4 months in and no stress? Must be easy riding from here!

Honestly VC-funded startups seem like a cake walk compared to actually starting a small business. Your biggest challenge is walking into a room full of rich dudes and schmoozing for your pay cheque. If you fail you get acquired and get golden handcuffs.

If you start a real business you can expect to take on debt, and you'll be personally guaranteeing it because nobody cares about equity in your boutique ice cream parlour. Plus a 5-year lease (which you will also personally guarantee).

View on HN

The most common endgame for a startup is slowly running into the ground until the money runs out and you eventually shut the doors. Failing your way into a happy acquisition isn’t really something to expect as a contingency, I don’t think.

Then use those five years to enjoy the fanciest office equipment VC money can buy. Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened.

The contingency isn't golden handcuffs its using one of the hundreds of C-level connections you made as a Founder doing sales and networking (and accelerator programs) to get you a cushy gig as a Product Lead, Operations Lead, or similar title with a strong paycheck and immediate authority.

Not that people with VC need defending, but:

Sure, if you magic up a startup with VC funds you suddenly have it easier than a small, bootstrapped business.

Startups almost never start with a round of VC though. There are almost always months or years of the same experience as a bootstrapped business (ie: extreme uncertainty, no money to pay yourself, etc).

Most startups don't manage to raise VC, and most startups that raise VC fail with no acquihire.

Running with VC funds? Oh god, that would be cakewalk compared to even just figuring out how to ensure there's food if you spend money on some necessities for prototype...

> Honestly VC-funded startups seem like a cake walk compared to actually starting a small business.

Make this about any brick/mortar businesses and the stresses multiply by another factor. If they're in a federally regulated biz (compliance) or an insurance dominated state (rates, inspections), then multiply again.

This is a comment about brick and mortar businesses, I literally talked about having to personally guarantee a multi-year lease in the post.

And yes, some businesses are even harder due to regulatory requirements

I one time tried to do a normal startup with 20-30 owners all financially liable. There are other challenges tho.

I don't know why you are trying to make this a me vs them situation. Both situations are difficult in different ways and they are all real businesses.

"Your biggest challenge is walking into a room full of rich dudes and schmoozing for your pay cheque." - Sounds like you are trolling or alternatively incredibly naive.

"If you start a real business you can expect to take on debt". ... Real business? Come on.

No one in this thread is saying starting a business is easy - ice cream business is debt funded because you have a very definitive range of outcomes. Venture funding is completely different animal - failing to see that limits the value of your comment significantly.

> I don't know why you are trying to make this a me vs them situation.

In terms of economic disparity it _is_ very much an us vs them situation.

Consider the optics over the last 20+ years. The middle class and their small businesses have been decimated while former VC funded companies hoover up their futures on Wall Street.

The level of risk involved starting an average small business is much closer to home compared with a startup seeking VC funding. The former can literally lose his shirt, the latter has to settle for a high six figure salary somewhere else.

Failing to see that limits the value of your comment significantly.

This isn't a me vs them. Who is hoovering up the ice cream futures? Different business model, different businesses. Both are difficult. Being a founder of a VC based company is difficult and being a builder of a retail brick and mortar is difficult. It isn't zero sum and both can exist in the same economy trying to make this a Me Vs Them narrative is totally BS.

Making a wedge where there isn't one is disingenuous.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com