LW - Startup Roundup #2 by Zvi

Link to original article

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Startup Roundup #2, published by Zvi on August 6, 2024 on LessWrong.
Previously: Startup Roundup #1.
This is my periodic grab bag coverage of various issues surrounding startups, especially but not exclusively tech-and-VC style startups, that apply over the longer term.
I always want to emphasize up front that startups are good and you should do one.
Equity and skin in the game are where it is at. Building something people want is where it is at. This is true both for a startup that raises venture capital, and also creating an ordinary business. The expected value is all around off the charts.
That does not mean it is the best thing to do.
One must go in with eyes open to facts such as these:
1. It is hard.
2. There are many reasons it might not be for you.
3. There are also lots of other things also worth doing.
4. If you care largely about existential risk and lowering the probability of everyone dying from AI, a startup is not the obvious natural fit for that cause.
5. The ecosystem is in large part a hive of scum and villainy and horrible epistemics.
I warn of a lot of things. The bottom line still remains that if you are debating between a conventional approach of going to school or getting a regular job, versus starting a business? If it is at all close? I would start the business every time.
An Entrepreneur Immigration Program
This seems promising.
Deedy: HUGE Immigration News for International Entrepreneurs!!
If you own 10%+ of a US startup entity founded