Lifestyle Startups Stigma

Two articles I came across yesterday from Sahil Lavingia and Lescapadou inspired today’s post.

Let’s start out by defining what is a Lifestyle Startup. It is quite simple really. It is a business startup that can support your lifestyle. Yes, there are as many lifestyles as there are people but quite frankly we are all not that different from each other. In the end it all comes down to being able to do what you love and afford to keep doing it.

The average person will think that there is nothing wrong with running a lifestyle startup (business) and they are right. The problem arises when you talk, read and listen to the tech “elite”. In their eyes lifestyle businesses are “dipshit” (link via corbettbarr) and one shouldn’t even talk about them.

It is a peculiar world. Your success is measured first and foremost on the amount of funding you can take up on. After that you are expected to show growth. When I say growth I mean as in growth of your user base and your team. Revenue generation is third on the list. It is really “nice” your balance sheets to have 7 or even better 8 zeros next to Revenue. Profit… well profit is a wishful thing really in this scenario and it becomes important much later in the game.

Now do not get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with swinging for the fences and making it “big”. On the contrary I am more than willing to accept and admit that some of the greatest Internet success stories were created following the above plan.  How come the “elite” is not willing to do the same?

Stigma

There is a stigma associated with running a lifestyle startup. Unless you are willing to go all in and all the way than there must be something wrong with you. Let’s clear out a few of these:

1. Profitability – There is a certain association that lifestyle businesses are not profitable. On the contrary, there are probably more successful and profitable lifestyle businesses than you dare to imagine.
2. Growth – Yes, lifestyle startups do grow but often not with the hockey stick pattern you would expect.
3. Success – This one is really subjective and hard to measure. Success is different things to different people but I know most lifestyle business owners measure their success by things much more important than profits and growth.
4. Recognition – Running a lifestyle business most probably will not get you the cover of Time magazine but there is a big chance if you are good at what you do that your peers will salute you.

“Do you know what’s cool…”

Do you know what’s cool… no not a billion dollars… its the little things. It is cool to have time to: scuba dive, go to a concert, hike, paint, write, spent time with your family, friends and a million other “small” things. Do you know how you do that? Yes, with a lifestyle business.

If the first thing that pops in your mind after reading this post is that you need money to do all of the “cool” things or that you can do them after you “make it” than I regretfully apologize on your behalf for reading it.

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