Startup Survivorship Bias

Quote from the article:> Often, as we revel in stories of start-up founders who struggled their way through on cups of ramen before the tide finally turned on viral product launches, high team performance or strategic partnerships, we forget how many other founders did the same thing, in the same industry and perished…You're getting the wrong takeaway. It's not that people who made it with few hardships are bad examples, it's that anyone who made it is a bad example.

The purpose of the comment was not to be cynical, but to poke a hole in the logic of the article. Humans like to believe we can explain everything, so when we cannot predict the success of startups, we look at already successful startups, analyze their history, and create a story for why they became successful while others did not.In reality this narrative we create is not a product of facts, but a story we use to make the world seem more understandable than it really is. This concept is disc

Nobody said he wasn’t talented or hardworking, surely he is, extremely. It’s almost always a prerequisite for this sort of success.But for every successful founder, there are thousands of founders who are more talented and more hardworking and ended up failing. There are so many factors at play and most of them are unknown or beyond your control.What I’m saying is that this guy needs to learn humility and gratitude. This article reeks of Main Character Syndrome. Once he learns that his pat

There is no magic recipe for success and frequently people find success via luck, hacks, etc.In my experience, telling passionate potential founders if they never try they’ll never succeed leads to dark patterns in more than a few situations; for example, currently aware of a founder that left a good job to throw money and time at a startup even he clearly explained himself is doomed to fail. Personally seen people treat startups like a gambling addictions, pipe dreams that are clearly not ba

You would not say that if you knew him. I can tell you as both someone who does know him at least moderately well, and someone who knows a lot of other startup founders, that very few people indeed have his combination of brains and tenacity. I wish more did, because I'd love to be able to fund them, but Zucks are rare.It's comforting to think that successful people were merely lucky, or became successful by underhanded tricks, but as I've said before, if you have to choose between two expl

there are two ways to succeed in startups: 1) have a massive advantage, such as “xbox president leaves to establish new game console” 2) solve a hard problem that takes 5-10 years of grinding to develop. otherwise, it’s very crowded out there

Its fair to say, most of the recommended practices, were applied both by every single successful entrepreneur but also every founder who saw their startup fail.The problem of these types of recommendations, like work hard, have self-confidence, think independently, is that they are condition necessary but not sufficient for startup success.It's similar to recommendations on how to make a cake: Make sure the eggs are fresh, measure well the amount of sugar and the oven temperature. Non

This isn't an article, it's an opinion piece with a bunch of anecdotal evidence and random quotes to support the author's case.The caption "Nor are they Zuckerberg" is outrageously condescending and judgmental. "None of these people are smart enough to become successful entrepreneurs," judges the author, "and they shouldn't even bother trying."Is it a surprise that lots of people have the wrong idea about what it takes to be successful with

Startups succeed in spite of themselves.

Pretty much like the brilliant founders of successful startups.