The 'Real' reason why few IITian's do a start up | Hacker News Reader

The 'Real' reason why few IITian's do a start up

ubiquitary.wordpress.com

12 pointsslaxman3 comments

Very Sensational. And very little proof to back it up.

I dont know if IIT Delhi is the most entrepreneurial - because some is running around with a watermelon helmet and produced a movie? :)

Any cohort, be is the top 20% or the long tail, will have few risktakers. how does having the IIT Tagline make things any different?

Even by your own thought process, I wouldnt say they dont want to fail, they just have a very different notion of success and I'm sure they believe they are successful. Let them be.

At the end of the day, whether we choose to become entrepreneurs, fight the daily battles of life, or take a route that pays well - we have to stay true to our Dharma (that's really what it all comes down to).

PS: It does look like IITians and IIM grads find their way into the ecosystem - most of them as venture capitalists. About 60% of the Associate Partners in Indian Venture Capital firms come from IIT / IIMs (lower from 80% as to 5-10 years ago). Thats out of a sample of 1500 AP Positions (roughly)

Source (http://bestengagingcommunities.com/2012/07/10/how-to-get-a-j...)

Well running around with a watermelon helmet is catchy, isnt it? ;-) Anyways, I do not intend to say that having IIT tagline makes anything different. But I am aware of the quality of students there. (I do not mean that there aren't quality students elsewhere. It's just that this is the environment I am aware about.)

In fact, the bottom line of the article that most important trait you need when you start up is the willingness to fail. If you don't have that, it does not matter what your background is or how smart you are, you aren't going to succeed as an entrepreneur.

Disagree. If you arent hallucinated by the vision that you can somehow change the world, you wouldnt dare step out either. One has to be a masochist to want to set up themselves for failure.

Once again, its not the embracing of failure, but what you perceive as failure. Most start out for the fact that they love what they do and would do it even if they werent paid for it - its the learning along the way, the friends they make and the experience that drives them. The payout, is a bonus. Failure is not going anywhere, and not even getting a lesson out of it or growing a new skill.

There is nothing wrong with the article. You are setting yourself up for some trouble when you claim you know the "real" reason - backed by zilch data, and just pure perception :)

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