"David isn't mistaken in saying you should start a company to live off its revenues. The mistake is thinking this is somehow opposed to starting a company and selling it. In fact, for most people the latter is merely the optimal case of the former."
Right, they're not mutually exclusive.
But the old school way of thinking simply says that achieving the former will lead to the latter.
I.e., there is such a thing as trying to sell too early.
Building revenue-less companies to flip may have yielded some spectacular successes in the past (e.g. YouTube), but modeling yourself on rare, black-swan events is not a recipe for success.
Right, they're not mutually exclusive.
But the old school way of thinking simply says that achieving the former will lead to the latter.
I.e., there is such a thing as trying to sell too early.
Building revenue-less companies to flip may have yielded some spectacular successes in the past (e.g. YouTube), but modeling yourself on rare, black-swan events is not a recipe for success.