Everyone Wants to Be an Entrepreneur

If someone has actual experience working in a legit role at a startup I'd value it a lot. On the whole this whole startup craze is bullshit.

That being said there is the other side of it. Look at http://www.supercell.net/. They have 100ish employees with no need for more. First year they were profitable (2011-12?) I think they made all of 150,000 euros profit, by 2013 they made 650mln euros, by this year they had sold 51% of the company for 2.1bln and launched a third game.

I think entrepreneurship is great. I've heard the number of graduates going into finance has dropped in favor of other fields. I think a big reason graduates go to work in finance is for the money, but I think some people tend to forget that most self-made millionaires are not finance gurus, they're entrepreneurs/business owners.

Also, on a second note, I've seen some people make some great money off tech stuff specifically (just relating towards the OP here). One trader built an options platform and had a multi-million dollar buyout by an F500 company. Needless to say, he's not trading anymore :-) It does happen. Come to think of it, there were some guys on the trading floor years ago who built an instant messaging platform that connects all the accounts into one client (like Pidgin, for instance), and that was also bought out by the same company. It was designed specifically for pricing up options structures that get sent over IM, but yeah

Evory:

Recently, a friend of mine showed me his resume stack of post-college graduates who applied to his firm. 90% of them had one thing in common; each and every one of them listed themselves as the Founder or "CEO" of a startup company. If you look into these companies, you'll find little more than a trail of old Twitter accounts bearing their name and boasting of an upcoming release.

The Silicon Valley startup boom has everybody trying to join the fray, and at times the question is asked whether there is a formidable battle for post-grad talent between Wall Street & Silicon Valley. The allure of $5M Seed Rounds, empty valuations, and the media hype of valley starlets distort the economic reality of the startup yet nonetheless young folk come out in hordes to join this accelerator or that incubator or that conference over there.

But, it's true that once in a while you'll find someone who relatively ignores the whims and wills of the Valley such as the likes of Elon Musk, who although is extensively covered by the media can be described as industrious and respectable as opposed to his gimmicky Valley peers.

Questions: I have no doubt those of you responsible for interviewees have had similar resume stacks, but as a whole what do you all think of the value of trying a hand at entrepreneurism? Wall Street vs. Silicon Valley? Is the startup a vehicle for the young or for the old?

Isn't it a good thing that they've been proactive and taken the initiative to start something of there own? Of course, if it's a CV filler, I would look really negatively upon them.

I really do agree with your Musk comment. Everyone seems to thing a startup is a valley tech app or website. I really hate that. Surely, most startup's are nothing of the sort and I imagine apps and website are more talked about due to the huge successes of a few? Although, it's good to remember Musk did start with internet and the reason he was able to take a crack and cars and space was he had proven himself and personally had REALLY deep pockets.

I've opened my own taxi base, hope to open a tuition centre this year and in the not to distant future work on a large startup; none of which are Valley-esque. I also did/do them with the hope of continuing in the long term, not just adding them to build my CV.

It's far better to try and fail than to get a job that will suck your soul out of your asshole. But then again I seriously doubt most of these kids have really tried to make a go at it.

On a different note. Anyone who starts any kind of business is an entrepreneur. Not just the kids in SF who can't really grow beards. I have just as much respect for someone who starts a successful lawn care business as I do for the person who writes an app and it blows up and makes a billion dollars.

This thread is music to my...eyes I guess.

No one is disputing that there are many brilliant entrepreneurial minds out there, but there are SO many idiots with horrible ideas getting on the bandwagon these days.

well, it's the same for any other stuff – if you don't put any effort, you will f up everything – be it a startup or a career.

An app that was coded in 8 hours can raise over a million dollars in its first round. The question is, why WOULDN'T everyone want to be an entrepreneur?

Honestly, I just think it's ridiculous to call yourself 'CEO' unless you're running a legitimate money making business or you have substantial funding. It just seems ridiculous.

If your resume says CEO or Founder, you are 100% attempting banking just for the money.

Auto ding for douche bags.

What if you genuinely made profit... is 'owner' a better title to put down?

Are there any numbers on what fraction of apps/startups eventually become profitable? There are so many crash and burn apps on the iTunes store I can't imagine the percentage is very high...

I never understood why "founder" is not acceptable, unless you want to hide the fact that it was your start-up that blew up.

I think "Founder" is fine assuming it's an actual business entity. I think the issue becomes when people are half-assing some random App or website with no discernible product or service or path to ever making money and put it on their resume. You just have to be careful about that sort of thing.

If you're an established professional it is one thing. As the opportunity cost for a start-up would be very high.

However, if you're a 22-year old kid, with no real outstanding job offers...and have the opportunity to join a start-up that has a good product...fucking go for it...if it's a legit start-up and it bombs...you'll bounce back pretty quickly.

It's nearly impossible to take those shots when you have a mortgage and small mouths to feed.

If it was a valiant effort, I would absolutely not look down on it in an interview...quite the opposite. Again this is assuming that there was a legitimate business, not some dorm room project.

I think that it's great to be an entrepreneur. In college, your risk exposure is at its lowest as it will ever be as an entrepreneur. Start a business, and it fails. So what? Many kids have their parents paying for college and if they fail, they simply go on with college, graduate, and go into the workforce. But as a professional, you are essentially independent and are actively forgoing income. Failing could set your savings/income level back several years.

My only problem is that a lot of the resumes I see with Founder/CEO of their own companies, is that its bullshit and it is essentially a company started just for the resume and not to actually be a business or is obviously unfeasible

Put these things under a "Projects" section of your resume if you are in a tech field. It shows interest, hard work but I think it is a mistake for kids to inflate that experience on their resume.

http://image-store.slidesharecdn.com/63ebc17c-add0-11e3-b391-22000a98b2…

It depends if the start up company in question actually has done something tangible. If the resume lists something tangible like a revenue number and that number is significant, I would be interested by the candidate. If the resume just shows a start up and doesn't list anything tangible, I'd view it like I view "president of xyz club".....don't give a shit.