Of course, there are many different reasons, but I suspect it is primarily for the sake of financial freedom. I wrote another post about this, and created this poll to validate/invalidate my hypothesis.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=455233
Anyways, interesting point, is it worth fighting for something if the odds are great that you'll fail and get disemboweled? I think some things are.
To bring Photoshop to the browser: no.
Being able to work the hours I want to work. I can come into work at 10 instead of 8. I can leave work at 3 if I wanted to. As long as my work gets done.
Not having a boss micromanage me. Not having to worry about office politics (for the most part). Also the freedom to run with great ideas and not have the bureaucracy of some corp jobs.
Also Being able to work on a wide range of technologies and work with people from many different verticals and experience levels is a great experience and keeps my job (programming) fresh.
Finally startups generally only last a couple years. This allows me to change jobs every few years and lets me do something else. This is really beneficial as I'm able to feel refreshed and not trapped in a grind.
This poll forgot "masochism", which is my +1.
So, let me rephrase that. I see 0 posts about how to become financially free (excluding startups). That is either because it has been conclusively shown startups are the only viable option, or because people haven't thought about their motivations carefully. I suspect it is the latter.
Stocks and day trading: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=390765
Avoiding working hard: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=394609
Making money off side projects: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=423204
I think clocking in from 9-5 and being told what to do is hard. Never mind how many green pieces of paper I get for it. But we all need money as a survival tool. So where do we draw the line? How do we balance security, survivial, freedom, joy, work, and responsibility...
Each answer is our own. I want to build a successful business because I put it in my brain a long time ago that I could. There is nothing stopping me from doing it. I want to prove myself, to myself and reap the benefits while I do it.
From my perspective, it is better than any and all alternatives I have regarding financial and life freedom/security etc...
This is not to discourage anyone from running their own business. Rather it is to highlight the case that "running your own business" != "freedom" neither from a temporal or a monetary sense.
Just as in everything else, it is HOW YOU GO ABOUT building and running your business that matters. There were a couple good articles regarding "having clear lifestyle goals" relative to any startup and measuring the success of your startup relative to those lifestyle goals.
So to answer your question - I don't think it can be answered. There is no absolute path to said goal. Hard is subjective, therefore scientifically meaningless.
Can't you be financially free if your expenses approach zero? It is possible for me to get lost in some national wildlife reserve and spend my life living off the land. Is that being free? What if you rake in millions of dollars at your startup but you MUST put in 14 hour days to keep it running? Is that being free?
Maybe what I am saying is we can't plan our lives in terms of end goals. Rather we must plan our lives in terms of what kind of journey we think best at any given time. And then simply ACT the way we wish to be. Do I want to be free? Well, maybe I should ACT free!
Our life IS the journey... Or maybe I'm just losing my sanity...
Alternatively, I could go the zen route and say I want whatever it is that is currently happening to me...but it wouldn't be honest.
I make web sites to make things that don't already exist. I make web sites I wished already existed. My main user is always myself.
Startups fascinate me because so little has been done. Each movement innovates very slightly. One person will add one neat feature to a site and then everybody else steals that and creates a lot of repetitive iterations on that theme.
When I work on startups, I kind of reflect that belief. I've had a few ideas - none of them launched until this current one - and with each one I tried to start from nothing and create stuff specifically to meet the content type. I'd call it "working with art" but that sounds really snotty. What it means is that I try to make every page I design something special. I want people to click a link and fall in love with the next page that loads. Splash page, deletion page, everything. I like having a site where each page is specially crafted.
So that's that. I view money as a similar artistic goal of sorts. I think that creating profit should be as unique as a web site. I guess it's a part of my goal, too - I do want to be filthy rich - but more than that, it's part of the process. I'll know I've made something meaningful when it makes me rich.
Glamor? From designing web sites?
I like learning new things as I design. Absolutely. But I get experience for everything. I learned graphic design to make a book cover, and in making a book I learned some things that I used for designing a blog theme, and I learned from that to make the first draft of my site's design.
Freedom's found everywhere. Maybe I'm young or an asshole, but I've never been in a situation where I feel caged. I would go work at the movie theater with ten sheets of paper and write. When I'm in class I take notes on one page and draft layouts on another. And I've always felt free to refuse to do things. One day in my senior year, I walked out of class, quit my job, and rode my bike to the library, because I felt too restricted doing what I'd been doing for a while. I always feel that freedom that comes from my knowing I'm doing what I want to do.
Wow. Long post for a short question, but I guess summarized it's that I make startups because they're there to be made.
"Doing a startup isn't a sensible CAREER decision... It's a largely emotional lifestyle decision."
Both of these come from the comment below by webwright. After all the reasons and explanations I had read before, they really nailed it for me and have always stuck in my mind.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1016179405&play=1 (At 13:00)
This about sums up what why. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (House Committee on Financial Services Chairwoman) declared on CNBC tonight small businesses (who employ over 55% of American workers, and generates more than 78% of new jobs in the US) can forget about any simplification of taxes, regulation or laws... its just the cost of doing business and overhead she said.
Work for someone... less aggravation then starting a business and employing people. I wish it weren't true.
Glamor: no thanks, that's not the point.
Experience: sure, a little bit (see a previous discussion on HN about a recent college grad asking to choose between Ph.D, startup, or Microsoft job). But not really the main point of startups.
So I have to pick: other. I do startups because I believe in the company vision (in my current case, exporting the silicon valley startup model to the rest of the world, in the previous case, bringing hardware designers with better debug tools).
Money is a tool toward practicing Freedom
Note I said practicing. Freedom cannot be obtained. It is not a static state. It is not an object. It is not a goal, a path, or a reward.
And as a corollary to "freedom", I get to work on way cooler things than I would likely be working on otherwise.
I want the experience of creating and nurturing something that from nothing can pay my family's bills. I want the experience of working in a close team again. I want the experience of being able to ride market problems.
If things work out? I may want money/freedom/time, but all of that really boils down to experiences as well: the experience of owning a jet, learning to scuba dive, seeing my kids grow up from very close (instead of commuting to a job).
It's all about experiences folks. When you die, it doesn't matter how much you've saved or what you might have been able to do because of your freedom. What matters is your choices and the experiences they provide.
Although it isn't commonly ascribed to people now days, throughout history it's been quite common for a young man's life choices to be driven by their desire for adventure. Be it running away to sea, joining the army, becoming an explorer, etc.
I think the current startup scene, with it's fast pace, constant reinvention, and unknown future is certainly able to fulfill that desire.
9/10 it keeps me awake too.
Not that I'd ever stop working entirely...just that I'd be free to work & do whatever I want, when I want without any money constraints (within reason).
In the end even if your startup folds, the experience of working with brilliant people trumps everything else.
Invest a few years working your ass off to be able to afford to sit on your ass later on in life.
Added a freedom and cause (for alain94040) options