Monday, April 4, 2011

Farming vs. Mining Your Business

"You can either see founding a company as something you’re doing because you want to produce good software, or you can see it as something you do so you can sell your stock and make a killing and move on."


Well said by Will Shipley in a post worth reading on entrepreneurship. I found it via Marco of Instapaper


I see both sides of this via my day job in venture capital at Lighthouse Capital and my side project, Ben's Friends patient support sites. A lot of startups are trying to "hit the hole" so to speak, and make something worthwhile and then cash out. It turns out that the best companies I work with at work though are the ones that are run to build something lasting and are not quick flips. Perhaps I have a biased sample because I gravitate to those people and can connect with them better because I grew up in a family business for 25 years. Farmers usually beat the miners. Something to think about if you are starting something.