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Poor idea to found a startup in a field you don’t believe in. Waste of time from the start.

AnicetN 3y ago
Lesson learned
srejk 3y ago
Roll-friggin-eyes Scotsman. You think everyone that founds a startup for, say, B2B data integration Really Believes In It? Or just that there's money to be made?
- bee_rider 3y ago
  What does it mean to Really Believe in B2B data integration?
  - intelVISA 3y ago
    my $green_line went up after tricking $big_corp into buying my SaaS
- KaoruAoiShiho 3y ago
  Usually you believe you can make money if you deliver value to the customer. In crypto people don't believe they deliver value, they scam or prey on fomo.
  - fsckboy 3y ago
    no true Scotsman delivers value to a customer! one of the problems with crypto as currency is that currency is not supposed to deliver value beyond medium of exchange and store of value at least long enough to do that.
- intelVISA 3y ago
  You should be passionate about delivering a viable competitor in that problem space, or why bother?
- traceddd 3y ago
  I believe they believe they are helping people and the work is valuable at some level, if they are successful, yes. At the very least they aren't intrinsically opposed to the field.
- chc 3y ago
  There are absolutely people who go into B2B data integration startups with the belief that they are providing a useful service to their customers. Do you really doubt that?
- siva7 3y ago
  I got some surprising news for you. There are people who passionately work in B2B data integration. All successful B2B startup founders i've met are very passionate about their field. Now for those founders who don't have much interest in the field they are working on - they are hardly those who you would call successful by any metric. Life is too short to waste it on things you don't care about.
nine_k 3y ago
Even as a rank-and-file senior dev, I never join companies that work on ideas I don't believe in (web3 included). I can't be productive and efficient working on stuff I despise. I can't imagine how would it look for a founder. It's like trying to swim while being skeptical about touching water.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  What do you mean by "believe in" here? There have been very few companies I worked for where I "believed in" what they did in the sense of thinking they were doing something amazing and world-changing. But I "believed in" them enough to know they were doing things I found interesting and could afford to pay me. > I can't be productive and efficient working on stuff I despise. There's a huge amount of space between believing in something and despising that thing. > It's like trying to swim while being skeptical about touching water. I think being nervous about touching water when trying to swim for the first time is healthy and rational, and may even make your ultimate success more likely. I'd be much more comfortable working with a founder that had a healthy amount of skepticism than a founder who was a "true believer". I suspect I'm purely getting trip up on language here, though, and I probably agree with your underlying sentiment.
  - chc 3y ago
    If you define "believe in" as "thinking they were doing something amazing and world-changing," sure. If you mean it in the more normal sense of "Think it is a worthwhile endeavor that has a reasonable chance of success," the distinction you're drawing here doesn't seem very salient.
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      Right, what is meant by the phrase is important. That's why I was asking for clarification.
  - mrighele 3y ago
    Don't know about OP, but for me it doesn't have to be something "amazing and world changing", but it should be something that makes a positive impact on the society. For example I work in healthcare and I think that the software that I write positively affects both doctors and patients, even though it is not about a world-changing novel idea. If I were to work for Meta though (just to make an example), I wouldn't be thrilled at the idea that I am optimizing for addiction, and even if I weren't working on the core business of the company, but instead on the latest and greatest web framework, I would be still working for a company that (in my opinion) totals a negative contribution to our society. The motivation is not the same for me. Now, in the case of Web3 and crypto, people are usually either on the "the best thing since the discover of fire" camp, or in the "a wasteland of frauds and Ponzi schemes", so in fact the dichotomy between "believing in it" and "despising it" is not really wrong...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
pickingdinner 3y ago
If you don't believe in the work, it's just a job. Most of us have a job, which really is just low hanging money. Belief can be motivation to start something, but this wasn't something he started, either.

Lesson learned

Roll-friggin-eyes Scotsman. You think everyone that founds a startup for, say, B2B data integration Really Believes In It? Or just that there's money to be made?

bee_rider 3y ago
What does it mean to Really Believe in B2B data integration?
- intelVISA 3y ago
  my $green_line went up after tricking $big_corp into buying my SaaS
KaoruAoiShiho 3y ago
Usually you believe you can make money if you deliver value to the customer. In crypto people don't believe they deliver value, they scam or prey on fomo.
- fsckboy 3y ago
  no true Scotsman delivers value to a customer! one of the problems with crypto as currency is that currency is not supposed to deliver value beyond medium of exchange and store of value at least long enough to do that.
intelVISA 3y ago
You should be passionate about delivering a viable competitor in that problem space, or why bother?
traceddd 3y ago
I believe they believe they are helping people and the work is valuable at some level, if they are successful, yes. At the very least they aren't intrinsically opposed to the field.
chc 3y ago
There are absolutely people who go into B2B data integration startups with the belief that they are providing a useful service to their customers. Do you really doubt that?
siva7 3y ago
I got some surprising news for you. There are people who passionately work in B2B data integration. All successful B2B startup founders i've met are very passionate about their field. Now for those founders who don't have much interest in the field they are working on - they are hardly those who you would call successful by any metric. Life is too short to waste it on things you don't care about.

nine_k 3y ago

Even as a rank-and-file senior dev, I never join companies that work on ideas I don't believe in (web3 included). I can't be productive and efficient working on stuff I despise. I can't imagine how would it look for a founder. It's like trying to swim while being skeptical about touching water.

JohnFen 3y ago
What do you mean by "believe in" here? There have been very few companies I worked for where I "believed in" what they did in the sense of thinking they were doing something amazing and world-changing. But I "believed in" them enough to know they were doing things I found interesting and could afford to pay me. > I can't be productive and efficient working on stuff I despise. There's a huge amount of space between believing in something and despising that thing. > It's like trying to swim while being skeptical about touching water. I think being nervous about touching water when trying to swim for the first time is healthy and rational, and may even make your ultimate success more likely. I'd be much more comfortable working with a founder that had a healthy amount of skepticism than a founder who was a "true believer". I suspect I'm purely getting trip up on language here, though, and I probably agree with your underlying sentiment.
- chc 3y ago
  If you define "believe in" as "thinking they were doing something amazing and world-changing," sure. If you mean it in the more normal sense of "Think it is a worthwhile endeavor that has a reasonable chance of success," the distinction you're drawing here doesn't seem very salient.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    Right, what is meant by the phrase is important. That's why I was asking for clarification.
- mrighele 3y ago
  Don't know about OP, but for me it doesn't have to be something "amazing and world changing", but it should be something that makes a positive impact on the society. For example I work in healthcare and I think that the software that I write positively affects both doctors and patients, even though it is not about a world-changing novel idea. If I were to work for Meta though (just to make an example), I wouldn't be thrilled at the idea that I am optimizing for addiction, and even if I weren't working on the core business of the company, but instead on the latest and greatest web framework, I would be still working for a company that (in my opinion) totals a negative contribution to our society. The motivation is not the same for me. Now, in the case of Web3 and crypto, people are usually either on the "the best thing since the discover of fire" camp, or in the "a wasteland of frauds and Ponzi schemes", so in fact the dichotomy between "believing in it" and "despising it" is not really wrong...

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

pickingdinner 3y ago

If you don't believe in the work, it's just a job. Most of us have a job, which really is just low hanging money. Belief can be motivation to start something, but this wasn't something he started, either.