创业与商业qz.com
创业者没有冒险基因，他们来自有钱的家庭
Entrepreneurs don’t have a gene for risk – they come from families with money
2015 — 2021，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这篇文章讨论创业者的风险承担并非源于某种“基因”，而更多与家庭经济背景有关：有家庭财富作为后盾的人更容易承受创业失败。它挑战了白手起家、天生敢冒险的叙事，并引出资本、人脉和安全网在创业中的作用。
为什么经久不衰：它戳破了“天生冒险家”的神话，把创业风险重新放回财富安全网和机会结构里，今天讨论阶层流动与创业特权时仍常被引用。
HN 评论精选
财务安全感是承担创业风险的前提；早期员工与创始人的回报和体验差别很大。
十年前我刚毕业时加入一家创业公司，不是创始人而是第一名员工。很大程度受 Paul Graham 文章影响，我天真地以为自己在做了不起的事（顺便说，我来自经济困难家庭，今天每一分资产都是自己挣的，不是继承或别人给的）。这段经历让我学到两点：1）员工体验和创始人完全不同；我很多朋友误以为早期员工能享受和创始人一样的好处。2）没有财务安全感时极难承担风险；当然有反例，但我认为平均而言确实如此。如今在大公司工作十年后，我有够撑两年的储蓄，也相信自己不至于饿死，这让我更有“创业精神”，已在为两年内创办公司做准备。TL;DR：平均而言，有一定财务安全垫会更容易创业。
radmuzom查看英文原文
Ten years back, when I was fresh out of college, I joined a startup - not as a founder but as the first employee. A lot of it was driven by reading Paul Graham's essays, and I was naive and immature enough to believe that I was doing something great (as an aside, I came from an economically disadvantaged family; and every cent of my assets today is something I have earned and not something which I have inherited or obtained from anyone including my family). Two important things I learned from the experience - 1. The experience as an employee is completely different from being a founder; a lot of my friends have deluded themselves into believing that early employees enjoy as much benefits as the founders. 2. It is very hard to take risks when you are not financially secure; yes, I am pretty sure that there are counterexamples but I believe my statement is true on average. Now after ten years mostly working in large companies, I have some savings which will allow me to last two years in case I lose my job. Also, I like to think that I have enough skills not to die of hunger if it happens. This has resulted in me being much more "entrepreneurial" and I am already working towards starting a company in the next two years. TL, DR; On an average, it is much easier to start a start-up if you have some basic level of financial security in your life.
资本和人脉比好产品更能决定创业成功，白手起家多是例外。
换句话说，创业和过去没多大不同——资本和人脉至关重要。确实有小本钱加努力把生意做大的例外，但它们只是例外。我年纪越大越意识到，“我只要做出比竞争对手更好的东西”这种想法有多天真。产品平庸但有资本大举营销、有人脉获取早期客户，成功机会远大于“仅仅”有好产品。
pkorzeniewski查看英文原文
In other words, starting a business isn't much different than it was in the past - capital and connections are essential. Sure, there're exceptions when someone with little money and hard work managed to grow their business, but they're that - exceptions. The older I am the more I realize how naive thinking "I just need to create something better than my competitors!" really is. You can have a mediocre product but with capital for heavy marketing and connections to acquire early customers you've much bigger chance of success than "just" having a good product.
文章对“创业”的定义过窄，忽略了小本生意及女性等群体，导致数据结论有偏差。
许多创业公司创始人一段时间不领薪水。考夫曼基金会称创业平均启动成本约 3 万美元；全球创业观察数据显示，新企业超过 80% 的资金来自个人储蓄、朋友和家人。在我看来，文章说的其实是大资金、高增长企业，随手就把那些创办传统小生意、从没想做成巨头的人排除在外。二三十年前，女性很难获得融资，还要承担家务，往往只能创办更小、风险更低、增长潜力更小的企业；她们不愿借钱，完全自力更生，用收入支付增长。如果你的商业定义实际上排除了女性等弱势群体常创办的企业，就不该惊讶她们在数据中代表性不足。
DoreenMichele查看英文原文
Many startup founders do not take a salary for some time. The average cost to launch a startup is around $30,000, according to the Kauffman Foundation. Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor show that more than 80% of funding for new businesses comes from personal savings and friends and family. This sounds to me like they really mean big money, high growth enterprises and are out-of-hand dismissing the kind of people who start more traditional small businesses with no goal of ever becoming a Mega Corp. I haven't looked at the data too much recently, but twenty to thirty years ago: Women had trouble getting funding at all, plus typically had ongoing obligations to do the women's work at home, so they typically started smaller ventures with less risk and less growth potential. They were disinclined to borrow any money at all and completely bootstrapped it, paying for any growth out of earnings as they were able to afford it. If your very definition of business de facto excludes the type of businesses typically started by women -- and no doubt other less-privileged groups -- you shouldn't be shocked when they are underrepresented in your data.
开发者的高薪就业退路提供安全网，让人无需富裕家庭也能承担创业风险。
身为开发者真的很有帮助。我采访过几十位自筹资金的创始人，他们说自己之所以敢“纵身一跃”去创业，是因为知道随时可以退回去做开发者。写代码能拿几十万美元，是相当稳的退路。我也是这样，所以即使没有投资人、没有富裕家庭可依靠，也从不害怕开始做东西。因人而异。
csallen查看英文原文
Being a developer really helps. I've interviewed many dozens of self-funded founders who've explained that the reason they felt comfortable "taking the leap" of entrepreneurship was because they knew they could always fall back to working as developers. Getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to write code is a pretty solid fallback plan. This was true for me as well, and is why I've never had trouble starting things, even when I didn't have investors or a rich family to rely on. YMMV, etc…
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