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How do you treat your kids when your startup is a success? (launchlab.co.uk)
17 points by Stubbs on Jan 15, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 15 comments


Peter Jones seems like an all round top guy.

Does he do much stuff on the net? startups or such?


Peter Jones is one of the five angel-investors on the BBC version of Dragons' Den. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_Den

He's been on the show for all six seasons. There are a lot of Dragons' Den episodes and specials uploaded in high-quality here: http://www.youtube.com/user/DDRepeat

Some of his investment/entrepreneurial specialties are mobile telecommunications, television, and media. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jones_(entrepreneur)


I stopped watching that when Doug Richard left... (I'm sure the others are great - but uk web investors are the ones I try to obsessivley keep on my radar.)


I'm sure the others are great

I've watched quite a few DD episodes. Doug was the most tech-hip Dragon the show has ever had. I think he had the best grasp of, and the most interest in, scalable startups and modern technology. I wouldn't expect the other Dragons to do someday be doing something like this: http://www.schoolforstartups.co.uk Or this: http://trutap.com


sadly trutap.com made lots of its staff redundant :(

Doug is based in Cambridge, UK [where I am, too]. Am tempted by Cambridge Angels, might have to ask around YC and see if anyone has any experiences.


Didn't know you were also in Cambridge, I'm just a stones throw (45mins) away...

There seems to be a reasonable startup scene there, do you go to any meetups? know of any?


I go to a fair amount .. there are lots - Are you on twitter? Big community around here.

Drop me an email - I love meeting interesting people :)

Here's a few handy links: www.refreshcambridge.org # great web community with monthly meetups http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1493387/


"pierrefar" is another great Hacker News user thats in Cambridge FYI.


I think most people watch it to see a real car crash. When I've watched it, which isn't that often I've been shocked by how bad some of the pitches have been.


Philip Greenspun suggests something similar:

http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/

He also adds another clever idea:

"Can we tweak the $N bonus idea at all? What if a kid becomes a repulsive yuppie despite the lack of financial necessity? Won't his siblings become envious when Chad, Jr. gets a $3 million check from Chad, Sr. to supplement his $1 million/year earnings at J.P. Morgan? Perhaps there should be a sliding scale for the bonus where the first $100,000/year is muliplied by 4, the next $100,000 by 3, the next $100,000 by 2, and the rest of the kid's income is not subject to a parental bonus. Or there could be a lifetime cap of $10-20 million per kid (no Gulfstream for Johnny :-( )."


The 2x payout is a good idea. If the kid grows up a screw up, they still won't starve on minimum wage. If the kid grows up to get a mediocre job making 50K/yr, suddenly they are pretty well off. If they push themselves and earn 100K...they get 200 which is quite good.

Good motivator for them to work their ass off


This is good too from the same site - top Dragons Den spoofs: http://launchlab.co.uk/article/Business-Blog/Top-five-Dragon...


Good to see, so many celebs (wealthy people) have nightmare kids. 10 seconds thought will give you a list of awful/useless children.


To answer the question in the title.. I don't know yet :)


yeah, thats one of those "good" problems to worry about in the future! :)




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