Why Should I Start a Startup?要約

Sota Watanabe
Aug 9, 2017 · 2 min read

非常に感銘を受けた。筆者の熱いものが伝わってきた気がする。

A lot of people ask themselves this question.

They often mull over one or more of the following facts:
1. The vast majority of startups are not successful
2. For talented technical people, it’s relatively easy to get a job and make a large salary
3. Large companies offer opportunities to work on very difficult problems that often only occur at scale

スタートアップの99 %は失敗すると言われる。大企業はスタートアップに比べて安泰だ。それでも、スタートアップに挑戦する理由のある人は、

My answer to why you should start a startup is simple: there is a certain type of person who only works at their peak capacity when there is no predictable path to follow, the odds of success are low, and they have to take personal responsibility for failure (the opposite of most jobs at a large company).

将来何が起こるのかわからない状態や、成功の見込みが少ない状態、責任が自分にある状態を好む人だ。

個人的にはこれに1つ加えたい。定義は曖昧だけれど、社会的に恵まれている人だ。世の中はいつも誰かの挑戦によって良くなっている。恵まれた環境にある人が挑戦しなくて誰が挑戦するのだろう?言うほど簡単ではないのだけれど。

After demo day no matter how hard we tried we could only raise $180k in angel investment. As we built our business we couldn’t attract the highest ranked VCs, couldn’t hire the most sought after engineers, and were constantly fighting to just stay alive at a time when video startups were considered horrible cash combusting businesses with no ability to monetize. On 5 separate occasions over 5 years we almost died. Once receiving a bandwidth bill for more money than we had in our bank account, once needing a loan from Justin and Emmett, and once having less than 2 months of runway and $1m in monthly expenses. All of these adversities were exactly what we needed to stay hungry. We couldn’t be killed, we wouldn’t go away, and 8 years after we started we succeeded.

筆者の過去の困難の振り返りを経て、スタートアップを始める前に自分に問いかけたほうがいい質問を記載している。

you should ask yourself these questions:
1. Do I like being the underdog?
2. Do I seek the hard challenges that most people shy away from?
3. Do I thrive when I take personal responsibility for success or failure?
If you answer yes three times, then maybe starting a startup is for you.

負け犬でいることへの耐性はあるか?普通の人であれば逃げるであろう困難に立ち向かうのは好きか?自分の行動に自分で責任を持てるか?

I cannot promise that doing a tech startup will make you rich (in fact the odds are against you becoming rich), but I can promise that it is one of the most challenging things you can choose to do. It will push you past your limits, force you to learn faster, and maybe show you that once in a while the impossible is possible.

スタートアップで成功するとは限らない。だけれど、最も困難で、自分の限界を越え、過去の不可能を可能にすることのできるかもしれないことであるのは間違いない。

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