this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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These startups just wouldn’t exist at all then.
They start up with the intention of being bought out by a bigger fish.
Not a loss. You can make an AI startup with the goal of being profitable yourself.
You can, but it’s not what people generally do. Not have they since the web was created. Starting a website or tech startup to get bought out has been a thing since at least the dot com bubble.
It’s been this way forever. Long before Google even. My uncle made millions during the dot com bubble by starting up a website, getting some traffic, then selling it off a bigger company. He did that 2 or 3 times and then retired in his 30s lol.
Hell that’s what the dot com bubble was in the first place. A million startups all trying to get bought by a bigger player.
And we’re currently in one for “AI”. That’s kind of my point. All of these AI companies are in it to sell off before the bubble pops. They have one little seed of good idea but no fully fleshed out path because they’re hoping for their idea to be bought out.
It’s how it is, how it’s been, and how it will always be in the early stages of any new technology. You will always have small startups/inventors trying to get one idea bought up to get their big payday.
I think the current startup scene leads to some pretty perverse incentives, as we’ve seen. However, I agree with you, and something needs to fill the void. A number of these startups have a very hard to no path to profitability but the ideas they come up with and execute on aren’t happening at larger corps.
I think maybe with less of a monopoly/duopoly/etc we can move past the “you have to own the whole market or it’s not worth it”-mindset. That’s one thing I hate so much about SV/startup culture. You’re either a unicorn or you’re a failure, which is total bullshit but when VCs and the like are involved those are the only 2 options.
I have my own side business, it’s small right now but it could grow to support me fully. It will never be a billion dollar idea, it will never “change the world”, but it’s an honest job and over time if I keep growing it I could go full time on it. I wish more people aimed for something like that.
I’ll also get up on my soapbox and talk about how things like UBI, universal healthcare, and similar programs would make this path 10000x easier for people. Having a safety net and not having to pay a second mortgage for healthcare would be nice.
So what you're saying is that it's a win for everyone except some borderline scammers then?