"The key question here is how much self-bullshitting you want to do versus how many doughnuts you want to sell." <- This.
One of the best comments i've read on HN.
What you just said knocks it out of the ballpark.
The thing that is wrong with the lifestyle business though is that at some point the founders intend on stopping their value creation beyond what they need to survive.
It's inherently selfish while the startup is inherently (mostly unintentionally) unselfish.
That's what, i think, the OP was trying to say with his post.
I have almost never met a "lifestyle business founder" who fits this description:
"The thing that is wrong with the lifestyle business though is that at some point the founders intend on stopping their value creation beyond what they need to survive."
And I run in circles with lots and lots and lots of people who have the "lifestyle business" label applied to them. As a slur. Including me! Everyone I interact with -- whether they make software or write ebooks on how to market and launch products -- cares about their customers, and their total impact on the world.
"Lifestyle business" is used against any business which does not seem suitably ambitious for the labeler's prejudice du jour -- whether that means they don't want to revolutionize banking, take funding, or they don't want to grow big and go public or get bought. "Lifestyle business" is just nasty, petty shorthand for "I'm serious and YOU'RE NOT, because you don't look like me."
We're not talking people who resell white label "nutritional supplements" or sailor shirts, here.
I, for instance, create tools and educational material. My software, Freckle, that Alex Payne [who wrote the essay] slammed so nastily, explains right on the front page how it creates value: http://letsfreckle.com/ -- it helps thousands of people every day run their businesses, & earn more money, with less pain and more joy. On top of that, I teach JavaScript programming in a way that reaches people who otherwise have trouble learning, and I teach entrepreneurship.
But Alex singled me out for criticism because he deems my efforts inadequate by his standards.
The whole point of Alex's original essay is that helping 1,000 customers isn't enough for "the world." And he thinks it's wrong to prioritize your own personal happiness if you have the unbelievably rare gifts of being able to program effectively or design nice things.
He actually told me in a tweet that he was disappointed in me, because in his eyes I should be doing something so much "bigger." That I was wasting my talent.
The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. And pompous beyond belief!
Now, all that said, I ask you:
Even if somebody was just selling white label vitamins or sailor shirts, where do you get off thinking you have the right to tell them that they aren't allowed to make themselves happy? To pursue their own goals in life? Why do you think that they owe you?
So I don't fit the "lifestyle business" description as you put it, but I'm damned sure that nobody is going to tell me that the way I live my life isn't good enough for them. Remove the plank from your own eye first.
One of the best comments i've read on HN. What you just said knocks it out of the ballpark.
The thing that is wrong with the lifestyle business though is that at some point the founders intend on stopping their value creation beyond what they need to survive.
It's inherently selfish while the startup is inherently (mostly unintentionally) unselfish.
That's what, i think, the OP was trying to say with his post.