Why is everything a "start up" these days? Don't people just build regular businesses anymore around their craft, something they're passionate about? Something they anticipate spending their life doing? No conning people to lend you crap-tons of money in advance to build a "runway" (with presumable death at the end of it) - just, regular, organic, growth. Building trust & a clientele the old fashioned way. No "exit strategy" to leave the very thing that you're crafting with care, the thing that is supposedly your passion. Just a "yeah, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, this craft, this thing that I want to learn everything about, this thing that I LOVE. And I think that, while doing that, over time, over many, many, years, I'm in a position to add some real, lasting value to people's lives" What happened to those businesses? In the immortal words of Kanye... Do anybody make real shit anymore?
@Alan_Couzens With infinite $$$ and resultant bubble markets, focusing on profits has become sub-optimal. We used to call it #pumpanddump
@Alan_Couzens Yes. SMB ownership is alive and well. Unfortunately media and culture fascinate over the “founders” of tech companies, not realizing everyday people making real businesses can actually become quite wealthy and are the mysterious ones that own all those big houses in your cities.
It only appears that way: Startup ventures viewed from the money side (those angels and VCs who ship boatloads of cash into nascent businesses) are very rare, few and far between. The signal to noise from the build side is entirely different and highly variable: everyone and their uncle seeks to fake it until they make it against odds greater than a lottery ticket. Yes, the majority would be better off building a boring business and earning out middle-class wealth, but then again, the fever dream is strong these days.
@Alan_Couzens There are definitely communities focused on building & selling rather than raising money & hyping. In the SaaS space @GregHead is a prominent voice with Practical Founders.
@Alan_Couzens I like the sound of that but biotech just isn’t built to work that way. Far too capital intensive and requires partnerships (i.e., acquisitions) to move that thing you love to the next level.
@Alan_Couzens Or a family business
@Alan_Couzens "Do anybody make real shit anymore?" They do in China
@Alan_Couzens people in the business world need to start listening to you & do the biz equivalent of zone 1 😅 quit the hustle culture, more low & slow!