Marc Andreessen explains why startups are heavily romanticized

Here's maybe the biggest thing people don't understand about what it's like to be a startup founder is it gets very romanticized, right? Even when they fail, it still gets romanticized about what a great adventure it was. But the reality of it is most of what happens is people telling you no. And then they usually follow that with, you're stupid, right? No, I will not come to work for you. No, I'm not going to buy your product. No, I'm not going to run a story about your company. No, I'm not. This, that, the other thing. And the reason people don't understand this is because when you're a founder, you cannot let on that this is happening because it will cause people to think that you're weak and they'll lose faith in you. So you have to pretend that you're having a great time when you're dying inside, right? You're just in misery. But why? Why did they do it? Yeah, that's the thing. For most of these people, on a risk adjusted basis, that's probably an irrational act. They could probably be more financially successful on average if they just got like a real job at a big company. But there's, you know, some people just have an irrational need to do something new and build something for themselves. And, you know, some people just can't tolerate having bosses.