> It makes me sad that I missed the boat on startups.
You didn't.
I started my career and my first company during the dot-com boom, before YC even existed and the word "startup" took its current narrow shape.
Things were ugly right after the bubble burst, but the years that followed were some of the best for building I can remember.
The tools change, and not necessarily for the better, particularly if you care about the craft for its own sake. But the hard part was never the build. Even back then, before AI, anyone could copy you fast. The hard part was knowing what to build, for whom, and how to reach them.
What anyone calls a startup doesn't matter. Build the things!
davepeck · · focus · HN ↗
You didn't.
I started my career and my first company during the dot-com boom, before YC even existed and the word "startup" took its current narrow shape.
Things were ugly right after the bubble burst, but the years that followed were some of the best for building I can remember.
The tools change, and not necessarily for the better, particularly if you care about the craft for its own sake. But the hard part was never the build. Even back then, before AI, anyone could copy you fast. The hard part was knowing what to build, for whom, and how to reach them.
What anyone calls a startup doesn't matter. Build the things!