A 'startup' need not be something in
Silicon Valley, based on information technology,
venture funded, and intended for an exit at
$1+ billion.<p>Working at GM, GE, IBM, Cisco, or any of a long
list of other famous, big companies tends to
be a long walk on a short pier and not a 'career'
with which one can get hired, buy a house,
support a family, grow in prosperity, pay for
college for the kids, and retire comfortably.<p>Why? Such a career needs to last about
45 years, and in all
of the history of the US since the Industrial
Revolution there has been only a tiny fraction
of jobs in large corporations that could be
the basis of such a career.<p>E.g., might have
joined IBM in 1950 and then, 44 years later,
lost the job when the company lost $16 billion
and went from 407,000 employees down to
209,000 and cleared out rush hour traffic jams
in a large chunk of Upstate NY. That was about
the best shot at a 45 year career in IBM: Join
before 1950? IBM was not much of a company then.
Join IBM after 1950? Likely the job would last
less than the 44 years of my example.<p>GM? Shipped
most of its jobs out of the US, helped Detroit
and much of Michigan and much of the Midwest
Rust Belt look like a war zone, and went bankrupt.<p>GE? Discovered that good products made in Japan
sold quantity 1 retail in the US for less than
the direct, marginal manufacturing cost at GE,
and GE closed down big chunks of their business.<p>So, what's keeping people in the US employed?
Mostly small businesses, especially ones with
a geographical barrier to entry. Such businesses
do need to be started and, thus, are <i>startups</i>.
The US has millions of such businesses all
across the US in big cities down to towns
that are just crossroads. Net, <i>startups</i>
are most of what is keeping the US economy
running.<p>So, the broad idea that <i>startups</i> are rare
and strange with a lot of obscure aspects
is a bit silly. E.g., long lists of points
of tricky advice on just how to do a <i>startup</i>
are a big silly for nearly all US startups.
E.g., in my neighborhood, the guys mowing
grass show up with a relatively new truck
worth, say, $30,000, towing a trailer with
at least one lawnmower worth maybe $15,000 --
could plug together quite a server farm
for that much cash.