How Startup Founders Actually Get Rich (Quick?)

1. DCDalton Caldwell0:00

   You'll know you're on the right track-

2. MSMichael Seibel0:02

   Yeah

3. DCDalton Caldwell0:02

   ... if other people are like, "Wow, this person is doing something really interesting."

4. MSMichael Seibel0:07

   Yes

5. DCDalton Caldwell0:07

   And they wanna talk about it. That's a sign you're on the right track. [upbeat music]

6. MSMichael Seibel0:13

   This is Dalton + Michael, and today we're gonna talk about how startup founders get rich quick. And we're gonna try-

7. DCDalton Caldwell0:20

   [laughs]

8. MSMichael Seibel0:20

   I was gonna say, we're gonna try to keep a straight face. We're gonna try to keep straight faces. So Dalton, what is the three-part recipe? Please deliver.

9. DCDalton Caldwell0:28

   Yeah. I, I think the way I would set this up is there's the wide perception of something, and then there's the reality.

10. MSMichael Seibel0:35

    Yeah.

11. DCDalton Caldwell0:35

    And I think a lot of people in the world think of being a startup founder as sort of a get rich quick scheme-

12. MSMichael Seibel0:41

    Yeah

13. DCDalton Caldwell0:41

    ... where you kinda show up and you promise some fake stuff and you wave your hands, and then somehow someone gives you a bunch of money. It's, like, really easy. [laughs]

14. MSMichael Seibel0:51

    Yeah.

15. DCDalton Caldwell0:51

    And it happens really fast.

16. MSMichael Seibel0:52

    Happens every day.

17. DCDalton Caldwell0:53

    And I think the theme of a lot of the videos that we put out over the years is to sort of dispel those myths, or at least be honest about how the sausage is made here.

18. MSMichael Seibel1:02

    Yes.

19. DCDalton Caldwell1:02

    And so the point of this video is, let's talk about some case studies of people that did get rich quick and what they did.

20. MSMichael Seibel1:09

    Mm-hmm.

21. DCDalton Caldwell1:09

    And see if there's anything actionable in there or not.

22. MSMichael Seibel1:13

    Or if it was all right place, right time. I wouldn't bet my life on it.

23. DCDalton Caldwell1:17

    Yeah.

24. MSMichael Seibel1:18

    [laughs] It's funny 'cause I, I think in my career I actually have both examples, and it's really quite funny that it happened that way. So there's Twitch, which took five years for us to even figure out what we needed to do, and then another set of years to actually sell. And there was Socialcam, which the public story is, right, like, we spun out of Justin.tv and sold within six months, right? So, like, boom, boom, boom. For me, I remember a story when I was first starting, when I was 23 years old, and we had, um, our lawyer at Wilson Sonsini, who was 30. And at first I thought, "That's impossibly old. That's-

25. DCDalton Caldwell1:58

    [laughs]

26. MSMichael Seibel1:59

    ... you're, you're an ancient person." And the lawyer said very calmly, "Hey, just so you understand, you know, we deal with a lot of startups. We've done kind of a bit of a study, and it turns out it takes about eight to 12 years to exit your company." Something that when we say that to ourselves we're like, "Oh, that lines up." And I remember thinking, "This old 30-year-old has no idea what he's talking about. There's no way this is gonna take eight to 12 years." I've never spent eight to 12 years doing anything. [laughs]

27. DCDalton Caldwell2:24

    Well, there, when you're, when you're young-

28. MSMichael Seibel2:25

    College was four years.

29. DCDalton Caldwell2:26

    And that's, like, impossibly long. [laughs]

30. MSMichael Seibel2:29

    [laughs] And nobody does the same thing in college for four years.

Episode duration: 11:44