Ask HN: What drives you to start a company?

My personality :)

I just left/sold my own company that I started over 3 years ago. Then people asked why? I said "opportunity cost". I just couldn't explain it in any other way.

Wasn't happy with my response so I got obsessed in psychology for a couple of days this month. So why?

"Someone with extraverted intuition as their leading function is very dependent on his/her feelings of interest and disinterest. Interest and boredom seem to be the driving forces in such a person's life — more so than for any other types. Other types also find things 'interesting' and 'boring,' however, they are able to derive satisfaction and enjoyment from things that aren't necessarily interesting and novel, as opposed to extraverted intuition types."

"What makes something interesting? A new situation, a new set of people, a new way of looking at old things, or novel or unusual information. There has to be some special quality in the information, situation, or people that creates an open-ended, high-potential situation that engages and energizes the mind. Extraverted intuition types would rather choose an unknown situation that might have high potential than a known situation that is known to have low or medium potential."

I'm a commerce graduate from India. When I graduated I realised the only jobs available to me are ones outsourced from developed nations - uninteresting back office jobs. Since I was pretty good with computers - I use linux, can bash script, build websites using html/css and php frameworks, code in python, currently learning C - I decided to get into web development freelancing. Since everybody in India is out to get websites for themselves or their businesses, the potential is good enough to start my own company sometime soon.

To give you a general answer to your question, there's only one reason why people start businesses - circumstance. The circumstance may vary. Maybe you have a great business plan that can make you insanely rich. Maybe nothing else interests you. Maybe a friend asked you to co-found a company.

Product excites me. Its the feeling I get when I notice a problem, the visual appears in my head, I start thinking code.

Its an addiction for me. Been like it for 5 years.

A big motivator is trying to solve a problem you are facing that has no clear cut available solution

In truth and in large part because people in the field that I am interested in are not addressing the real problem, ie, they are all 'barking up the wrong tree'. When you have an answer/solution and when others still don't 'get it', there comes a time that you have to step in. I don't want to sit by the sidelines anymore, so I'm rolling up my sleeves to do it myself.

For me it the ability to work on what I'm passionate about on my own terms. As I have worked for some big name companies and organization that effected world change, yet it was still never things I was passionate about or on my terms. Plus as I have for the last year and half been working on my own startup I have come to realize just how rewarding the process is. I mean the struggles and sacrifices and risks you go through to see your own idea and passion come to life is like none other. To be your own boss and see a dream realized in the process. What's better then that?

What drives me? Fear.

I fear I am unable to work for others with extremely limited freedoms.

Boredom drives me. At most jobs I've had, I feel bored. Sometimes I also feel stressed, but I rarely feel interested. The other thing that drives me is ambition.

For the money. It keeps me focused and since money is what I use to buy food for my family, pay rent, my children's education etc I am morally comfortable with money as my goal in starting a company.

So you don't have to put up with bureacratic bullshit that goes on in all companies or government departments. Once you have worked in organisations for long enough, you learn that often the people in management above you are often quite incompetent. Their ability to make decisions is hamstrung by the person above them, and those above them. Control freaks are everywhere, and drag down the independence of staff. Having your own start-up or working for one means you are either in control of the decision making, or very close to those that are, and you aren't stuck in committees and meetings to make even the smallest decisions. Freedom from these work practices is enough motivation for anyone. I make pretty good money now, I would like to make more through my start-up, but if my start-up made me the same I would be 5 times happier than in my current work environment.

The realization that being employed by someone else was holding me back intellectually and financially.

For me it's the learning aspect of a startup. I had a great job for a really fantastic company but I quickly realized that there's a "ceiling" to the amount of learning you can do in one role/position. To continue learning/growing, you'd have to get a new role/position. Lot of time and bureaucracy goes into that role change. My previous employer was mid-sized and there was a lot of flexibility. They encouraged and empowered employees to get exposure to various parts of the company. But for me, learning is not structural and it shouldn't be contained by the role.

I LOVE being part of a startup because everything is so hands-on and the learning has been exponential. In 1 week I've easily learned more than I would have 1 month on a company job.

That to me is worth it. No matter what happens, I'll walk away with a lot more knowledge and courage than I had before.