Business funding and generation gap….

There’s really something to be said about building a lasting and, ultimately great, company.

Companies built upon financial tricks and gimmicks usually perish and burn a lot of people with them.

In my opinion, everyone should win – investors (angels and vcs), founders and employees. If one of these camps prospers and another does not, it’s a red flag indicating something went wrong during the process.

Mike, I really admire your decision to run TechCrunch out of your house. As an entrepreneur, I do whatever I can to save money, whether it’s buying replacement toner cartridges on eBay, finding $30 desks on sale at Staples or picking up an extra refrigerator that was sitting in a a friend’s garage. At age 23, I started my first job working for 25% of what I could have been making in order to work alongside solid guys with 20-30 years of industry experience and shoulder a high degree of responsibility in bringing an enterprise software project to market. Eating top ramen and looking for deals on chicken at Albertson’s gets old, but following my dream and learning much has been worth any sacrifices.

To all those reading, best wishes in your current and future entrepreneurial endeavors.

I didn’t have much insight to the goings-on with the VC’s during the late 90’s but I did see how the greedy bastards on Wall Street ran some great companies into the ground for the sake of short returns. I’m glad to see that for the most part, entrepreneurs are steering clear of the IPO route. Not sure if it’s by choice or conscious decision, but it is a nice development.

I do have to confess, viewing it from the belly outwards, this experience has definitely been worth the years spent.

And I do agree with the slow grow philosophy. Please those who keep you in business. Get a solid base, and then proceed.

I wasn’t going to link to the Richter Scales’ awesome “We’re In Another Bubble” video, but after reading Mike Arrington’s thoughtful big-picture post today, I thought it would be an appropriate counterpoint. Together…

To keep my comment short, I’ve put down my thoughts here:

http://sablog.c...round-priceless

Maybe I’m old guard? Thankfully I was never laid off… But it wasn’t easy watching friends cry and say things like, “It’s okay, don’t pay me. I just want to be here. I just want to be a part of this.” These weren’t just collapsing businesses, they were families. Not much long after that I read an article about Bill Gross burning through $800 Million in 8 months… How does anyone spend that much money?

So now I’m doing all I can to avoid VC. I saw the wreckage they left behind. They don’t care about the people. If only 1 in 10 make them money, 9 entrepreneurs are putting their resumes on dice.com hoping a potential employer doesn’t pass ‘em over for their “entrepreneurial spirit.”

Thanks for the article Mike. Something to think about. We’ll see who survives this wave…

I think it’s fair to say you could call me one of the “young bucks” in the game. Over the last few years, I have noticed the tremendous impact and influence of social networks. At 22 and about to be fresh out of school, I will be going full force into my own social network venture. I had an idea floating around my head this past summer, and everything finally came together in mid-August. Ever since, I have been investing all of my “free time” from school into this idea. Whether it’s researching what’s already out there or expanding upon my original premise, I’ve loved every minute of it.

I discovered what I was passionate about, and went from there. My business concept has taken off on a life of its own, and I couldn’t be more excited about the future. Like Eric said in post #78, think big and dream massive. I’m doing just that while trying to maintain my feet on the ground.

Luckily, I recently partnered with two others who have 7-8 working experience on me, and it just so happens that they started their own website design company four years back. They believe in my idea, but more than that they see how passionate I am about its power and potential. I’m willing to make no money right out of school in order to see what I believe in do well. I know it can. I wholeheartedly agree with the poster in #139: execution is what separates the ideas from success. I wish everybody the best the believes in what they are doing. Nothing happens overnight. Thanks for all sharing your own input.

Best wishes,

Adam Wexler

This story has been submitted to Stirrdup. Your support can help it become hot….

maybe a reunion of the old school and new graduates is required for a constructive debate…

Edgeio, a Web 2.0 jobs classified service that was the initial driver of ProHipHop Jobs, has joined the TechCrunch Deadpool. This must have been a sad moment for Michael Arrington, TechCrunch founder, who was also a cofounder of Edgeio. Now Arrington i…

In any case:
“My interactions with Edgeio, a company I co-founded and which went into the deadpool last week, were similar. It seemed like every board meeting I was saying the same thing – stop spending money, stop hiring, stop. I was out voted, and the company followed its own path”

My condolences regarding Edgeio. I was an early adopter on that one but had to drop the service cause they didn’t give me control over the ads. Anybody could sign up and they would only remove them if the ad violated their terms of service, i.e., I had no real control over who would advertise on my site.

I pointed this out and whoever I was in contact with was polite, could see my point but didn’t think that option was coming anytime soon. Maybe that worked when you’re charging $200 for an ad but that pricing wasn’t going to be my reality and not everybody plays nice enough in my world to give them direct access to space on my site that I can’t veto.

Screening advertisers is ultimately on the publisher, not the ad service, and I couldn’t do that so I dropped it.

R.I.P.

Although no need to start the post with “Silicon Valley”…. or maybe there is!!

Michael Arrington talked about entrepreneurs the second time around today. I think he should segment that audience further into dot com era and other era projects.
Generally speaking, experience counts for something. So you’d expect entrepreneurs wh…