This is a great writeup. I have also come to disagree with the specific PG essay mentioned in the post.
Entrepreneurship needs to be more sustainable than what is made out in the current literature. It shouldn't really be a 2 year binge in the hope of a cashout. The biggest companies take a lot more than that and if you really love doing it there is no reason you should be looking for an exit. A long term commitment also requires entrepreneurship to suit your other life requirements.
Couldn't disagree more on his statement: "Never start a company just to start it. You start a company because you have an idea that you think will be great for some customer and great ideas are always worth doing"
IMHO the biggest reasons to start a company is just to start it. The biggest companies have started that way - most famously HP. Ideas are mostly incidental and most of the time the first ones rarely work out. The biggest ideas are not really that clear early on - Writely was only a great idea because it got acquired by Google.
I did a course on randomized algorithms which referenced the book on the topic he wrote. The man was almost a genius, The book is as ground breaking as the knuth series.
Not to counter your argument against H1B visa, but parts of your arguments are based on inaccurate prejudiced data.
1. "people who are smart enough to get jobs in some of the top corporations" - Not all H1B's work in top corporations, not all H1B's who work in top corporations do 'smart' work, not all employees of top corporations do smart work.
2. "I want get a job doing smart stuff for a smart employer[2], and I don't expect to get that job in India." - Most 'top' corporations have offices in India - where a lot of smart people do smart stuff. Not all of them do it because they dont have an option of going to the US. A lot of them do it because they are happy staying in India. Please stop twisting facts to rationalize your motivations.
The follwoing is her first Cisco post - a tad too rabid for a CTO.
It is an exciting time to join Cisco.
Cisco is the company whose leadership legacy defines “The Network” in many ways. Today, it is a company driving many new paradigms in communications and information technology. In the future, it will be a company poised to lead the industry to the next phase of Internet evolution.
What are some of the characteristics of solutions driving the next wave of Internet evolution? We already see many precursors for this such as, Collaboration, Web 2.0, and Always-on Demand. Cisco has been at the forefront of this shift, where the network becomes the platform to deliver the next wave of applications and services.
Throughout its history, Cisco has demonstrated the ability to anticipate changes with a proven record of accomplishments for capturing market transitions. The company’s customer centric culture, unwavering commitment to technology, and passion for innovation, mark the platform for leadership. Leveraging the reality of globalization, integrating outside and inside ideation through well-executed acquisitions, a relentless focus on financials and flawless delivery of results, delineate Cisco’s platform for talent.
Business plan is the biggest piece of bull crap. You should know your business or do whatever it takes to learn it and persist - that is the only thing that is required and a smart investor will get that and ask the right questions.
Still, write it if you think that it will get you the money and then promptly discard it, or better still ask them to write it - obviously if they understand enough they should rely on their numbers more than anyone elses.
If they say that your business plan is not good enough, ask them to shove it up their sorry ass.
It might sound surprising but CNet also uses similar techniques to generate huge parts of their product reviews.
The technique is the biggest threat to the current crop of 'content' driven search engines (read Google and everyone else) and has the potential to wreak havoc with current ranking systems. Given the lucrative nature of the automatic content generation business, this is also inevitable.
Big counterexample : Trilogy E-Business - took 3 years before the first sale, made somewhere in range of $30mn in the 5th year.