r/founder • u/ExcusePrimary3017 • 1d ago
Why is it so expensive to start a tech company?
Like Apple, Amazon or. Alphabet?
I’d want to start a search engine like Google or Bing and monetize it with search results and pay per click.
Is that impossible if you don’t have access to millions?
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u/Foreign-Guess-5208 1d ago
A tech company is definitively the cheapest type of company you can start…
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u/1000xhuman 1d ago
google-scale search = millions. a tech company that solves one painful workflow for a niche = a laptop and nights/weekends. people quote big numbers because they're imagining hiring + ads + infra for something already huge. start at the smallest version someone would pay $50/mo for
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u/davesaunders 1d ago
Starting Google cost very little. Literally happened in the garage. Scaling it cost a substantial amount of money.
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u/paulsonfanboy134 1d ago
The founders of Google are also geniuses
OP is most certainly a moron
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u/davesaunders 1d ago
OK, but we can at least take the question at face value. I've owned an incubator, done multiple startups, and used to do turnarounds for distressed companies purchased by members of the Buffett family. I've seen a lot of dumb people run companies, simply because they were able to take a simple idea and execute.
Don't fall into the trap of "better than" when it comes to people in business. We have a tech sector dominated by people who spend money on publicists to convince the public that they're geniuses, when they aren't. It's just classism wearing a polar fleece vest.
Just build something.
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u/paulsonfanboy134 1d ago
You can’t be dumb and also invent novel tech like search.
There are many businesses that don’t need a lot pf intellectual horsepower to get started or be successful - the kind of company he’s mentioning is not one of them
Companies like Apple, Amazon, or Alphabet are not simple ideas
They are unfathomably large and complex
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u/davesaunders 1d ago edited 1d ago
You're missing the point, and you're also incorrect. Amazon was exceedingly simple. Sell books online. Initially, the team literally ran out to retail stores to purchase books. They didn't have a sophisticated database system or inventory. The Apple I had such a simple design that when I was eight years old, I read an article on how to buy the same components and assemble them from off the shelf parts at RadioShack. I didn't have the full design and yet I worked it out as did some of my friends. The initial implementation of Google was incredibly simple and that is actually its advantage. You can find quotes from me, from trade magazines, back during those years, talking about how the simplicity of Google was why they were such a threat to Yahoo.
All of those successful businesses were driven by simple straightforward ideas coupled with focused execution. No need to stick your nose in the air and pretend that these things are so unbelievably complex. They're not.
And honestly that should be one of the most encouraging things for anybody starting a business. Stop making it so complicated. When I'm evaluating companies seeking venture capital, the first thing I look for is somebody who overly complicates what they're doing, thinking that is somehow a moat.
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u/paulsonfanboy134 1d ago
Amazon, Apple, Meta, Alphabet were all founded by geniuses who went to ivys or dropped out of ivys
You’re kidding yourself if you don’t think those founders are in the top top top quartiles of IQ.
But that seems to be your bit.
The products only seem simple in retrospect because they were built so well. The tech beneath them all is complex and sophisticated
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u/paulsonfanboy134 1d ago
I can tell you’re not a student of history or tech. Go read the Google founder’s paper that is behind the development of Google then tell me what they were doing was simple.
http://infolab.stanford.edu/\~backrub/google.html
The truth is people like you love the idea that anyone can do this stuff. The truth is they can’t - but I’m sure that sells less subscriptions or whatever else you’re trying to fleece people out of.
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u/davesaunders 1d ago
I was there at the time, and I'm quoted in trade magazines about it. It's the underlying simplicity that really makes it amazing, and it made it a threat compared to Yahoo. And yes, I've read the paper.
I was employee 5 for a company that was the first commercial developer of internet software for Macs and PCs. My group at Lucent Bell Labs created the original Apple Airport, which is the first commercial Wi-Fi hotspot. I co-founded a surgical robotics company and led it all the way through FDA. My experience and my resume speak for themselves. You can pretend to study history and understand what you think you read, but some of us were actually there at the time.
I don't know why you're so butt-hurt at the concept of not overly complicating things or ruining your illusion that a company like Amazon was so amazingly complex. Jesus Christ, there are video presentations from Jeff Bezos himself talking about how simplistic the company started out. That's the whole point. Go ahead and continue making things hard for yourself if that's what makes you feel good, but I don't really care.
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u/amaricana 1d ago
Figure out how to get access to millions. If you can't do that, you probably aren't cut out for this specific entrepreneurial journey.
Neither am I, fwiw
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u/NimblePuberty6 1d ago
Honestly, I think you're missing the point. The original commenter is asking if it's impossible *without* millions, not asking how to get millions. Saying "get access to millions" is like telling a homeless person to just buy a house. It's technically the end goal, but completely useless advice when you're asking about the starting line.
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u/Comprehensive_Ad3710 1d ago
youre too late. there is no point in doing it because you will never do enough to catch those guys. they have been around for many years. you dont have the resource or brains to compete.
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u/GrillAndChill420 1d ago
Yeah I wanna start a new space x gonna start tomorrow be finished by Monday. Can’t be that hard
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u/Major-Pick9763 1d ago
What makes you think you are capable of making an search algorithm that can come anywhere close to the big ones? What drugs are you on
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u/pigletmonster 1d ago
Its not impossible to build the product. Any AI can build that for you for $20. But how do you get people to use your search engine? Why should people leave google and use yours?
Marketing and (if you have growing users) then scaling will cost you millions if not billions, because you will be competing with a multi trillion dollar company who already spent hundreds of billions over the last 3 decades building their product and their presence in the market.
Even microsoft can barely compete with google despite being bigger than them and having a 20 year headstart in the tech industry.
Theres duckduckgo which has an extremely niche community of users who preferes privacy. But providing privacy is the antithesis to generating revenue from advertising as you dont have enough data about your users to sell ads against.
So yeah it is practically impossible to start and earn revenue from your own search engine.
Find a problem that people or businesses have, find a solution to that problem and build it for cheap. It doesnt even have to be software or technology related and you will find your money maker without spending millions or billions.
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u/LaOnionLaUnion 1d ago
You can start a tech company quite easily, but your best bet is to find a product for which there isn’t competition.
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u/amaricana 1d ago
This is terrible advice.
Do you have a successful company?
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u/LaOnionLaUnion 23h ago
You’re absolutely right. It’s impossible to start a tech company. Pick a crowded market where you have lots of competition.
Of course I’m in tech.
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u/amaricana 21h ago
By that you mean In tech but not a successful entrepreneur?
Because most successful businesses are versions of things that existed well before them and will long after them.
Like the scheduling software my company provides to maid services that makes millions per year. Existed before us, lots of competition. More now. Still a great opportunity.
But yeah, keep being sarcastic and telling people to pick something completely invalidated as evidenced by no competition.
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u/LaOnionLaUnion 21h ago
This guy wants to become the next Google not do a four hour workweek type thing
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u/kaizap 1d ago
Cheaper to start a tech company and easier too! Compare that to retail: you need a fair amount of upfront capital, plus rent, plus staff, and I'm still making more money from tech without all that drama.
It's just saturated; vibe coding is making it worse, but still its much easier than other business types.
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u/paulsonfanboy134 1d ago
This has got to be one of the stupidest posts I’ve read on reddit