Chris Dixon

  • April 26, 2011
There are two kinds of people in the world

You’ve either started a company or you haven’t.  ”Started” doesn’t mean joining as an early employee, or investing or advising or helping out.  It means starting with no money, no help, no one who believes in you (except perhaps your closest friends and family), and building an organization from a borrowed cubicle with credit card debt and nowhere to sleep except the office. It almost invariably means being dismissed by arrogant investors who show up a half hour late, totally unprepared and then instead of saying “no” give you non-committal rejections like “we invest at later stage companies.” It means looking prospective employees in the eyes and convincing them to leave safe jobs, quit everything and throw their lot in with you.  It means having pundits in the press and blogs who’ve never built anything criticize you and armchair quarterback your every mistake. It means lying awake at night worrying about running out of cash and having a constant knot in your stomach during the day fearing you’ll disappoint the few people who believed in you and validate your smug doubters.

I don’t care if you succeed or fail, if you are Bill Gates or an unknown entrepreneur who gave everything to make it work but didn’t manage to pull through. The important distinction is whether you risked everything, put your life on the line, made commitments to investors, employees, customers and friends, and tried – against all the forces in the world that try to keep new ideas down – to make something new.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/BethSeibold Beth Seibold

    this is reference to an old post….”Facebook is like a Starbucks where everyone hangs out for hours but almost never buys anything”…..so true!!! you must go to the Sheridan Square Starbucks.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000313744592 Virginia Hoge

    “It means having pundits in the press and blogs who’ve never built anything criticize you and armchair quarterback your every mistake.”

    The key is to have your own pundits, who face up the naysayers online. In the world Silicon Valley media has created, this is the only solution to counter them.

  • Anonymous

    “…smug doubters”? Your smugness is positively palpable in this post. Be careful not to break your arm while patting yourself on the back.

  • http://twitter.com/pfayn Paul Fayngersh

    Thanks Chris. Really needed to read that today.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000313744592 Virginia Hoge

    Copywryter:

    “By changing a few words this could be the self-justifying dogma of a religious zealot, gangster in south central, or third world despot. It’s manic, neurotic, megalomaniacal, smug, and missing the introspection that prevents people from becoming giant assholes if success does find them.”

    ummm, exaggerating a bit aren’t we here? just a little?

    Comparing this post to writing similar in intent to, gangsta’s in South Central and third world despots??? give me a break.

    Lighten up dude, your touchiness is strange.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000313744592 Virginia Hoge

    Steve Walls :

    I would like to address your comment:

    “1, The ‘everyone is against me’ tone”

    I did not hear that, I heard that no matter how difficult it is, and it is, keep going for it with getting your new idea and product out there.

    “2. The belief that the world is resistant to something new”

    It is. Lol.

    “3 The inherent ‘but we’re still better than you’ smugness”

    Better than you? thats touchy.

    “4. The thought that ‘sacrifice is necessary and noble’”

    It is. Lol.

    “5. The paucity of actual business thinking”

    The concepts of good and bad, are not incompatible with business thinking. Not at all.

    • http://twitter.com/Steve_Walls Steve_Walls

      Really?

      1) Investors are “arrogant”, doubters are “smug”, the world is trying to “keep new ideas down”… sounds like heavily saw-dusted shoulders to me

      2) If the world was resistant to something new we wouldn’t be living through a period of explosive growth in patents, new product launches and fresh business models. Ideas are catching on and becoming habit in record time and at record pace. The world has never been MORE open to new ideas

      3) The “cult of the founder” is a hot academic topic at the moment – and this “all or nothing, first or no-one” piece is textbook

      4) Sacrifice may be noble but it’s not always necessary. It may be necessary without being noble. I launched my first company based off the back of sales made on a piece of software, then used that money to develop it. We made money from week one. No sacrifice, no nobility. Just a product that was market ready.

      5) This piece talks about ideas a lot. It doesn’t mention how to actualize ideas. It doesn’t mention time on the road selling the idea. It doesn’t talk about selling in a business plan. Or having investors fail to see the way that you’re going to make money. Ideas are easy.

      Hey, if you want to feel poor and put upon and misunderstood and under-appreciated. If you want to feel insulted and abused and unsupported. If you want to feel that you’re battling a system that hates the idea of a new idea. And if you get off on the risk and martyrdom of being out on a limb, so be it.

      What I find dangerous in this piece is that it seems to purport that all of that stuff is necessary.

      It isn’t.

      It may be common (in the West especially, you get less whining the closer you get to BRIC markets) but it’s not what being an entrepreneur HAS to be about.

      That’s my real point.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000313744592 Virginia Hoge

        Finally found the right reply button. You have been commenting here in sreaming all-caps and exaggerated language, it really got you hot around the collar.

        Why? Absolutely no reason for your anger and certainly not your bullying. Take a chill pill and allow that there are different viewpoints in the world, Lol.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000313744592 Virginia Hoge

      Steve Walls:

      I will address your comment.

      “1) Investors are “arrogant”, doubters are “smug”, the world is trying to “keep new ideas down”… sounds like heavily saw-dusted shoulders to me”

      You are picking words out of the content of the piece, and again, over-reacting and applying heavy generalizations to them. Heavily saw-dusted shoulders? Why does this post upset you so?

      “2)”

      Of course the world is resistant to something new. Always. This does not mean that new ideas aren’t pushed forward and eventually accepted, the post is encouraging people to do that. Its also the purpose of of advertising to spread awareness of new products.

      “3) The “cult of the founder” is a hot academic topic at the moment – and this “all or nothing, first or no-one” piece is textbook”

      What is the cult of the founder? Why are you calling this post all or nothing? It is not.

      “4) Sacrifice may be noble but it’s not always necessary. It may be necessary without being noble. I launched my first company based off the back of sales made on a piece of software, then used that money to develop it. We made money from week one. No sacrifice, no nobility. Just a product that was market ready.”

      Well good for you. Often this is not the case. Since you have been so fortunate, why do you find it necessary to proclaim that everyone will have the same luck you have had, or they are gripers? One might also inquire as to how different the software you were marketing was from what was already out there. Leaps of thinking and product development are harder to advance than lesser ones.

      “5) This piece talks about ideas a lot. It doesn’t mention how to actualize ideas….”

      The piece is about encouragement. Again, I do not understand why it bothers you so much.

      “6) What I find dangerous in this piece is that it seems to purport that all of that stuff is necessary. ”

      No where in this piece does it say it has to be this way, only that it often is. It is encouraging people to not give up, no matter how difficult it is to get their new ideas and products out there.

      It is not whining. To assign language like that to it, is little short of bullying. Why do you find it necessary to do that?

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000313744592 Virginia Hoge

        see my reply to your comment above.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000313744592 Virginia Hoge

    gsonic:

    again, lighten up.

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  • http://twitter.com/phelmig Patrick Helmig

    Chris Dixon, I really appreciate to read you blog for a while now but I never commented. But I had to thank you for this one. Great writing even though it’s right that you can only connect the dots afterwards and it is easier to motivate people to do something oneself already succeeded in.

    Thanks

  • http://technbiz.blogspot.com paramendra

    I am a @CDixon kind of person http://goo.gl/fb/bP1pO

  • http://technbiz.blogspot.com paramendra

    My Non Personhood Of 2009, 2010 http://goo.gl/fb/8IDww

  • http://about.me/chaswagner Chas Wagner

    Thanks for the write-up Chris. You inspired my latest blog post. Check it out. http://chaswagner.tumblr.com/post/5050916724/lose-yourself.

  • Facebook User

    I found your article on TechCrunch which lead me here. I just would like to say, I am inspired. It puts the wind in my sails, especially during these dark days of getting my company moving to the next level. Thanks very much!!! please keep posting!

    - Sergio Arroyo

  • Anonymous

    I want to be that former person described in your blog. I want to be given the chance to fail. So how can I get investors to notice me if I’m a wall flower. A little personality makeover is needed. I guess I answered my own question.

    What I’m really asking is how can you get an investor to notice you and give you funds without experience or a prototype?

    • Anonymous

      Hi,

      Write a really simple business plan, as simple as possible. Then start making your product using as little money as possible. When it becomes clear that you have something valid and promising, you will have no problem finding investors.

      The trouble is making that first dollar!

  • Anonymous

    I want to be that person described in your blog. I want to be given the chance to fail. So how can I get investors to notice me if I’m a wall flower. A little personality makeover is needed. I guess I answered my own question.

    What I’m really asking is how can you get an investor to notice you and give you funds without experience or a prototype?

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000313744592 Virginia Hoge

      good question. But the problem remains that great, needed, innovative ideas and products, are going to have a much harder time finding investors. Established businesses, as in Establishment, are going to be hostile to new ideas also. That has nothing to do, with the value of the product or idea. Investors need to take leaps of faith sometimes, and this can be very profitable for them.

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  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    The world’s filter to reduce new businesses is to make them costly.

    By costly I mean hard work and risk.

    We won’t sacrifice everything for any half baked idea and product. It’s gotta be the one (or two, etc. for serial founder crazy folk).

  • http://8bitliving.com 8 Bit Living

    Cool infographic “The Anatomy of a Newborn Tech Company”
    http://www.focus.com/images/view/57338/

  • http://profiles.google.com/abigsplash Jason Brady

    Kinda like niggaz and biatches right? @abigsplash:twitter

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000313744592 Virginia Hoge

      Not.

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  • http://www.dauntlessfund.com Lee Weinberg

    Chris — Great post — I re-posted on FB, LinkedIn, etc., and applauded and commented on my own blog (http://capitalistcounsel.com/). The question is, who should a start-up entrepreneur want in his/her corner? I say it is someone who has been a true founder, as “advisors” and “joiners” just can’t help out at the earliest stages in the same way.

  • http://www.dauntlessfund.com Lee Weinberg

    Some of the posters have complained that not all founders are ramen-eating, cubicle-borrowing, recent grads with credit-card (or trust fund) habits. That is true, including yours truly. Some of us are more mature, have had a career first, have hard-earned dollars in the bank from their prior efforts (some or a lot). And of that group of folks who have had a job or two, I would suggest that in fact many of them take much MORE risk when they leave it all to start a company, for, as Bob Dylan said, “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.”

    So, some have ranted against this very short note by Chris. But I think they are overreacting — I am sure Chris and others recognize a true founder and entrepreneur when they see one, and if you are one, people will know it. Here are two touchstones I would use to hit the broader range — A founder/entrepreneur puts CAPITAL at risk, and engages others in his/her enterprise very early on.

    Even the ramen-loving recent grad is putting capital at risk with those credit cards or $$$ from friends and family. And it is a rare person who really is an entrpreneur/founder of anything significant who did not quickly have to find partners or employees to make the project go.

    So, why is it important to identify? I think true founders, who risk capital (their own) and employ others at the earliest stages, can give better advice (and as investors, be better investors) than “joiners” or “advisors” of true founders. It is that simple. When you are the founder, you have a different road to
    travel, and the experience garnered can be invaluable. Others are valuable in their own ways and areas, no doubt. But if you want start-up advice at the earliest stages, you want a true founder/entrepreneur to guide you and invest time/money in you.

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  • http://www.FetchFans.com Carmen Benitez

    Geez, most of the thread is filled with overthink.com bystanders. I think Chris simply summed it well. Couldn’t agree more with it. Thanks and cheers.

  • http://www.FetchFans.com Carmen Benitez

    Geez, most of the thread is filled with overthink.com bystanders. I think Chris simply summed it well. Couldn’t agree more with it. Thanks and cheers.

  • http://www.FetchFans.com Carmen Benitez

    Geez, most of the thread is filled with overthink.com bystanders. I think Chris simply summed it well. Couldn’t agree more with it. Thanks and cheers.

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  • http://twitter.com/peopleshark Carmen Hudson

    Just printed this and taped it to my wall. Thank you for writing it.

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