The problem is that when you start that smaller company and it gets successful, you will be acquired. Big companies rarely build things anymore.

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awesome_dude 7 days ago | parent | next [-]

Just FTR - it's VERY rare for people to come up with more than one winning idea

Once a company gets big off its grand idea, there's little to no chance of it having another big winner, so buying one is best (and its cheaper too, you know it's a good idea, and you don't have to spend so much R&D on it.

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worldsayshi 7 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It makes some sense to sell out if you're building a product that will at best acquire a tiny sliver of the market, which almost all companies will. But there's at least a few AI companies, like Anthropic, that could potentially balloon towards becoming a Big Tech company. So it makes sense for them to not sell out for the time being.

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newsclues 7 days ago | parent [-]

Sell out, or get big enough to buy out others.

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bluGill 7 days ago | parent [-]

You don'thave to - but that means setteling for a job that earns an okay income. Sell out for millions now - more that your lifetime earnings and use the time and money for - what you want

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mattgreenrocks 7 days ago | parent [-]

I wonder what percentage of people in tech are working to cash out some way. 60%? More?

I argue it is both understandable (autonomy is a healthy thing) and also damages the culture at large.

	▲	bluGill 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		Most by far are working for someone else. They get no stock option, or if they get them they are of minimal value. Their generally get a good 401k (us only) and so can retire well off but would not call themselves rich.

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delfinom 7 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Big companies have never built anything new. It goes back decades. before tech companies, it was giants like GE who grew through acquisition after acquisition and eventually imploded from the incompetence blob (which takes a long time to accumulate the damage). The same will happen to the current big tech companies in a few decades.

	▲	yuliyp 7 days ago \| parent [-]
		Sure they do. Amazon built AWS well after it was big. Apple built the iPhone. Microsoft built VS Code. just to name a few examples.

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southernplaces7 7 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>you will be acquired.

You say this as if it's a coercive given, when you could just as easily say.. Nope, and continue to see how you compete with some agility. It might fail, but most of the big tech companies currently acquiring smaller companies themselves started small with acquisition offers being rejected along the way. Sure, there's selection bias at work there, but there are also many cases of smaller to mid-size companies that also said no to acquisition and still managed to find their successful niche.

Being acquired is not a given and neither is failure if you do compete in some way with the megacorps.

I see nothing about the current tech landscape that at all distinguishes it from previous landscapes in which smaller companies succeeded AND rejected acquisition.

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lovich 7 days ago | parent | next [-]

> You say this as if it's a coercive given, when you could just as easily say.. Nope, and continue to see how you compete with some agility.

It’s the same framing as calling offering someone a higher salary as “poaching” like we’re property being stolen by one lord from another.

Looking at you Steve Jobs and your anti poaching agreement

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thinkingtoilet 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I wish more people said no. However, the reality is it appears to be a given. If you're offered millions and millions of dollars, most people do not say no. The world is worse for it, but it's the truth.

	▲	southernplaces7 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		I think you really need to reconsider the definition of a given. Because most people don't say no to a thing doesn't make it coercive. Whether the world is worse or better for it in this context, I can't be sure (though I lean more towards big corporations eating nearly all competitors as generally dangerous), but we're still talking about voluntary choices in a market where competition still does frequently emerge to overhaul what's established. It's impressive how often people don't notice this even as it happens all around them in ways that directly benefit their daily lives.