Comment by obviouslygreen | Hacker News Reader

Comment by obviouslygreen | Hacker News Reader

Startups are a long-term game.

While I agree with this, it's definitely not the position I see here often. The quick flip or at least buyout-as-a-business-plan seems far more popular and glorified.

I guess I can understand that, to a point, but it indicates a very naive view of success and an unrealistic idea of what business is actually like. Unfortunately, that's echoed and reinforced in many places -- intentionally and otherwise -- YC and its surroundings being among them.

I like the premise here. I think it's simply that motivation comes from the belief, valid or not, that you're really doing something that has serious potential. He doesn't quantify what that means, and I think that's best... "big" means whatever it means to you, whatever motivates you, because that's what will make you feel like you're doing something important.

I'm not a feelings person when it comes to business. But being a solo founder, those ephemeral little buggers are important.

I agree that this feeling of being on the cusp of something big is ultimately just that, a feeling, and one should not try to be more specific about it. However, it seems to me that there is at least one type of situation where that feeling is grounded in fairly hard and verifiable facts, namely, when the idea in question is a scientific invention. Rudolf Diesel had a pretty good grasp of what the advantages of his engine were, and Tesla and Siemens knew pretty well why and how their AC power system was superior to Edison's DC. I'm a little irritated by the fact that this kind of scientific evidence for the value of an idea receives practically no attention at all in today's treatment of startup businesses, like the Lean Startup movement. Today, we ask the customers if they want AC or DC in their homes, and if the answer is DC, we pivot to that. Perhaps it would have been worth to stick with the AC idea a little longer, to fight for it, and to let its benefits sink in with people.

The only issue I'd take with this is that when someone says "I feel this way," I take it to mean "I believe this but can't prove it." If you know something, or if you have a good, scientific basis for a statement... that's not a feeling. That's a hypothesis, and it shouldn't be cheapened by being stated as anything less (at least when speaking to people who aren't already familiar with it).

When you've gotten beyond "I feel like this will work, and that's motivating me" and you've moved on to "this freaking WORKS and now we have to do something about it," then you have a new set of problems to go with your opportunities.

  Success is not a destination; it is a direction.

Pft... if he were that wise, he'd have his own HN account. ;)

[edit: Parent previously attributed quote to "A Wise Man"]

The term length definitely varies. Gabriel seems to be mostly about long-term bets, given his investment into search. Anybody who is in search knows this pretty well (Im in it too). But, Im also in other industries where profits come in early, even before the launch.

For a "quick flip or at least buyout-as-a-business-plan" plan to work, the thing you are building still needs to have long-term value.

The quick flip or at least buyout-as-a-business-plan seems far more popular and glorified.

If HN is to be trusted, there literally is no other viable business plan.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com