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wfrick

wfrick on Hacker News

Re:If Crowdfunding is the New Day Trading, Look Out on Friday September 27, 2013 @12:16PM (#6457725)
Related to this, I do think the question of what should or shouldn't be legal is a bit of a separate question. Of which this data is only one part. (to be transparent, I'm the author of the post)
Re:Only 200 Startups Per Year End Up Mattering and Most of them Aren't... on Tuesday May 14, 2013 @01:37PM (#5706537)
The "matter" framing is borrowed from the paper, which has a nuanced defense of the criteria http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/DownLoadableResources/...
Re:No Founders Required: How Flagship Starts Companies on Monday April 15, 2013 @01:44PM (#5552881)
I believe Redstar is too.
Re:Startup Copycats: You’re Doing it Wrong. on Sunday June 10, 2012 @01:55PM (#4091675)
*particular
Re:Startup Copycats: You’re Doing it Wrong. on Sunday June 10, 2012 @01:55PM (#4091674)
The advice about cloning a regulated startup is wise in that meeting a certain set of regulatory requirements can be a great differentiator. That said, the specific experience, network, and skill set required by a team to crack a particularly regulatory regime is if anything tougher to assemble than to crack a particular technical problem.
Re:LevelUp raises another $12M from From Highland & Google Ventures on Thursday June 07, 2012 @03:47PM (#4080997)
Big raise from these guys. Plus they've lowered their processing rates to 0%. It's a race not only against other mobile payment startups, but also against the Walmarts and Targets of the world.
Re: on Monday June 04, 2012 @01:23PM (#4064900)
This question totally misses the importance of so many open source projects as platforms for other developers to build on top of.
Re:Entrepreneurship for the 99% on Monday June 04, 2012 @01:18PM (#4064877)
I welcome efforts to help small business owners, but we shouldn't pretend that small business in general drives the economy. The huge jobs and productivity growth that we associate with startups comes from a very small % of disruptive companies, mostly in high tech. (I wrote a bit more about this here: http://bostinno.com/2012/02/17/bailouts-for-startups-tough-l...)
Re:For Tech Start-Ups, New York Has Increasing Allure on Sunday May 27, 2012 @08:53PM (#4031515)
I'm biased as I'm a writer covering Boston, but it's worth noting that New York's rise is tilted in the direction of a specific area: internet/mobile startups. But if you look at other innovation sectors like healthcare, energy, robotics, etc. New York is still extremely nascent.
Re:Facebook: Private Equity's evil twin on Friday May 25, 2012 @10:47AM (#4023716)
Pinning Facebook's IPO problems on VC seems like a pretty big stretch.
Re:Ask HN: How do you stay productive after work? on Thursday May 24, 2012 @09:50AM (#4018377)
For me, exercise is key. If I get in 30+min of exercise after work it's like hitting the reset button on my energy and I can squeeze out another couple hours of productivity.
Re:Forget About the Mythical Lone Inventor in the Garage on Sunday May 20, 2012 @04:30PM (#3999993)
Good piece, with major implications for public policy. Encouraging more people to go into startups is great, but funding more R&D (especially in energy) is crucial as well. Also, Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From makes this case very well at book length.
Re:The Hierarchy of Innovation on Sunday May 20, 2012 @04:27PM (#3999979)
I file this one under Wrong But Interesting. There's still a ton we need to do in terms of innovation for prosperity, notably in medicine and energy. And I think we're in the early stages of seeing total disruption of social organization (open source software model of p2p production applied elsewhere). But still an interesting piece and useful thinking exercise.
Re:I’m tired of the opportunists and their hackathons on Sunday May 20, 2012 @04:24PM (#3999970)
A lot of bitterness on behalf of the author against, essentially, people who don't have kids and choose to spend more of their time coding. Sure we don't want to drive people over the edge by encouraging everyone everywhere to work all the time, but this post makes it seem like anyone who makes different life choices than the author (not having a family) is somehow just getting swindled.
Re:RIAA: Innovation is the Best Way to Kill Piracy on Friday April 13, 2012 @12:31PM (#3837525)
As long as the RIAA still supports draconian copyright, a little nod toward innovation doesn't mean much.
Re:Why does the government always get it wrong? on Monday April 09, 2012 @12:30PM (#3817681)
Agreed. People love to focus on the failures of government while ignoring its role in developing technologies we rely on every day.

Question: What do economists generally know that CEOs don't, and vice versa?

Posted by wfrick on Saturday March 31, 2012 @09:06PM
from the self-post dept.

I asked this on Quora as well and didn't get much in the way of responses. But, to give an example, Paul Krugman wrote in the 90s about how CEOs typically misunderstand how nations compete, mistaking it for working like competition between firms. What other examples like this are there? And what do CEOs tend to understand that economists often miss?

( Read More... | no comments | on HN )
Re:Are you building a company, or your credentials? on Thursday March 22, 2012 @06:04PM (#3742270)
From a societal point of view, I'm a bit troubled. It's an encouraging trend that high talent individuals who would have gone into finance or consulting are considering startups. Should we really be turning them away? That said, I certainly understand your hesitations.