Ask HN: What motivates founders?

Gambling and founding a startup are two vastly different things, they are not on the same scale. While gambling is a zero-sum game and you have little control over the outcome, a startup creates value (or at least, tries to) and you do have the ability to change/improve the product based on feedback from the market. I might be too idealistic, but I believe this is what motivates hackers to found startups: create value + take control of their lives.

A deep belief that the world is doing it wrong and no ability to change large organizations from the inside.

Clearly, different people are motivated by different things.

I would suspect that anybody motivated by money is more likely to go to Wall Street than become a founder of a start-up.

Not to say that founders are not in some way motivated by money, but I'd be surprised if that is the primary motivation for the majority. If you look at the most successful founders, I think you'll find they love what they do, and the money, once you are successful, becomes secondary.

I've started a few times, and have ideas for other start-ups (nothing overly successful yet). I don't think about 'what would make me a ton of money', I think with respect to what I want, what is the world going to look like in 10 years in an area that I'm interested in. I have a vision, and I research if it is a good opportunity, and I pursue that vision. Even when the signs are that it is a financially bad opportunity, I find myself motivated by the vision, and continue anyway.

Last year I ran a project (not a start-up, I never saw it as a business), and paid the server cost for a year, as an experiment to see if others agreed with my vision, if I could inspire people, if I could change some lives. It was a really interesting learning experience. It was successful at first, more than I thought, and then fell to pieces, but what fun!

The reason people describe founders as 'visionary' is quite simple, if you don't have a vision, I don't think you've got anything to start.

In my case it was initially just being extremely dissatisfied with my life and deciding to do a startup. Which is kind of like realizing your car is out of gas and deciding to push it across the desert for fun.

Eventually I found something which grew into pure unwavering passion. Unfortunately that doesn't automatically translate into being able to execute successfully.

The other reason was a desire for massive amounts of wealth. Not for the sake of it, but because I'd love to be able to spin up large projects left and right. Paraphrasing another comment: the deep desire to do things better. And of course, make the world a better place.™

Funny enough, I spent about an hour writing a fairly heartfelt ten paragraph reply to this question, until Firefox mobile crashed and lost it all.

Then I realized that reply was an explanation of what keeps me going, not what motivated the decision to start in the first place. What keeps founders going might be a far more interesting question, and certainly a more complex one. It's a psychological minefield: career and personal life opportunity cost, sunk cost fallacy, people depending on you. Much more messy than the simple why of starting.

As a tech employee your salary is 1/4 or 1/5 of your turnover for the firm and this thought is unbearable to many.

In my case is was circumstance - someone gave me a check and said go build it after I gave a talk about my great idea. I was so ignorant that I didn't even know I was founder.

What I find more interesting is what motivates founders to continue when things get really, really painful. I don't have a good answer.

For me, money is just the lubricant which then allows re-investment to make the product, processes better and hire better people to them improve on those further and become the market leader.

My motivation was that I was extremely dissatisfied with the status quo of my respective industry. I knew full well that to achieve my own vision so to speak, would be really complex, time consuming and hard to pull off. When I realised this, the challenge was graciously accepted.

I could so easily start a venture to become an also-ran in a crowded market. There are many competitors of differing niches in my industry that I could immediately jump into. Do know, it's perfectly fine for someone to start a company based on a niche and then try to be the best. I'm not knocking sentiment. But for me that's not sexy, not what keeps me up at night. I want to be a monopoly, one that changes how people perceive things and what they do.

But ultimately, what I crave is the satisfaction that I started something, which blew up massively and then really affected peoples lives.

Belief in creating a change that they have perceived in their minds.

For me, at least, it is the extreme belief in oneself to accomplish something. Whether it becomes the next billion dollar startup is second. I am doing it because it is a challenge and not everyone can do it. Its much better than working for someone else and being assigned to do the same tasks over and over again.

The closest mentality to a founder I have seen are those of extreme sports. Especially sports that requires laborious hours and determination to get done. Like those that choose to climb Everest. Its tough and chances of injury is high. But you keep climbing because you believe you can make it to the top. You can't imagine going back down to the mundane life below.

Riches and bitches

Solving a problem, building something, helping customers. Having autonomy in the workplace is a nice benefit too, but you can get that elsewhere.

Don't found a company for the money. The odds are so awful that you'd be better served getting a job.

The freedom to create my own job and to be my own boss. That alone brings me happiness. It makes me feel like a I have a much larger purpose in life, from the mission I assigned myself to - to the amount of people who could potentially be impacted by that mission (in a positive way). Last but not least, if it ends up being a successful journey (in bussiness terms), as a founder, I would get the ultimate recognition and satisfaction.

1. Freedom

2. Impact

3. Recognition

For myself, it's the challenge and being able to prove to myself that I can do it. I love that there is no clear direction or obvious answer. I want to build something and make my mark on this world so that I can tell my kids one day that they can absolutely accomplish anything in this world if they set their heart to do it.

Thank you everyone for the fantastic answers.