Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 14 August 2012 04:41:27AM *  3 points [-]

Anecdotally, Dropbox was founded by two guys who had just met each other.

But yeah, this is probably true in general. Maybe the best we can do is start making friends with people who we might like to start startups with later, as a preliminary step?

I'd like to make friends with a web designer, myself.

Comment author: Reichart 17 August 2012 04:08:59PM 2 points [-]

"Anecdotally, Dropbox was founded by two guys who had just met each other."

No, not anecdotal. While I appreciate Paul Graham's cherry picked examples just like the next person, having looked at the history of hundreds of companies, it is all over the map. In general, you can't "create" success, you can simple try to avoid or mitigate failure. "People" make great companies, by being great about making it work.

But, sadly, and I really mean, sadly, monetarily successful companies (which may not be great companies) are for the most part simply created by having a product people want to buy. You can have a staff of imbeciles selling sugar to children.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 14 August 2012 03:16:42PM 9 points [-]

Something I learned from watching a nearby train wreck: The emotionally dominant person in a partnership should not be a compulsive spender.

Comment author: Reichart 17 August 2012 04:01:17PM 1 point [-]

Indeed.