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Entrepreneurs – Don’t Be Afraid of GDP Growth Rate

All the economics and newscasters like to talk about GDP Growth Rate (and its importance to life, the universe, and everything).  Whatever.  One of my very smart LPs sent me this the other day. 

gdpgrowth

He sent the attached note:

This is not meant to be exhaustive or to suggest any correlation – only a reminder that great companies continue to be created at shitty times.  It is, however, interesting to think about what attributes might lead companies founded in shitty times to go on to be successful.  How about: single-mindedness of purpose, frugality/capital efficiency, and more sweat than equity.

The list of companies started during periods of negative GDP Growth include Wang, TI, DEC, Fairchild, EDS, Compuserve, Intel, Atari, CA, Apple, Microsoft, Amdahl, Autodesk, Sun, Compaq, Cisco, 3Com, Genzyme, EMC, Amgen, Lotus, EA, Adobe, AOL, Dell, Cisco, and Network Appliance.  I know the startup story of many of them and it includes single-mindedness of purpose, frugality/capital efficiency, and more sweat than equity.

Categories: Entrepreneurship    

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9 Comments on “Entrepreneurs – Don’t Be Afraid of GDP Growth Rate”

  • Aaron Johnson – Links: 3-15-2009 March 16th, 2009 2:47 am

    [...] Entrepreneurs – Don’t Be Afraid of GDP Growth Rate The list of companies started during periods of negative GDP Growth include Wang, TI, DEC, Fairchild, EDS, Compuserve, Intel, Atari, CA, Apple, Microsoft, Amdahl, Autodesk, Sun, Compaq, Cisco, 3Com, Genzyme, EMC, Amgen, Lotus, EA, Adobe, AOL, Dell, Cisco, and Network Appliance. I know the startup story of many of them and it includes single-mindedness of purpose, frugality/capital efficiency, and more sweat than equity. (categories: startups entrepreneurship economy motivation ) [...]

  • Dijital Life » Starting a company during a down economy March 16th, 2009 11:36 am

    [...] who are in the middle of starting up something now, here is a good diagram to look at (citing from Brad Feld). It shows some empirical data between the timing of economic cycles and good companies [...]

  • A Great Time To Launch A Good Startup | All about MICROSOFT March 17th, 2009 1:01 pm

    [...] admin on Mar.17, 2009, under Microsoft From Feld Thoughts: All the economics and newscasters like to talk about GDP Growth Rate (and its importance to life, [...]

  • “Started During A Recession” « ecpm blog March 18th, 2009 12:14 am

    [...] Published March 18, 2009 Advertising Statistics , Internet Economics , Venture Capital This is where I’ll point to whenever I refer to the meme about good startups that were created during a [...]

  • vbrief.com March 18th, 2009 2:01 am

    Entrepreneurs – Don’t Be Afraid of GDP Growth Rate…

    Great companies are started in recessions–the data…

  • The CU New Venture Challenge: Get Your Funding On | On the Radar... March 18th, 2009 5:57 am

    [...] trump economy. Brad Feld, Managing Director of the venture capital firm Foundry Group, recently pointed on his blog to all the name-brand firms started in a downturn: Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, and Adobe, to name just [...]

  • The CU New Venture Challenge: Get Your Funding On | University Beat March 18th, 2009 5:58 am

    [...] trump economy. Brad Feld, Managing Director of the venture capital firm Foundry Group, recently pointed on his blog to all the name-brand firms started in a downturn: Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, and Adobe, to name just [...]

  • David Campbell March 20th, 2009 8:34 pm

    Alas, it appears the Economist shares your sentiments.

    http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayst...

  • ErinZILLA March 20th, 2009 10:00 pm

    Very cool and very true. Times like these remind me the importance of passion, honor and responsibility. I know one thing for sure, a bad economy is never going to stop me from attaining my dreams.

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