Figuring out starting up

It seems to me that sometimes the things that are being considered the most are not the things that matter most.

Consider these two résumés.

Candidate #1:
- 800 years of experience in product development
- Hired by Google, Facebook, Groupon, Learnemy, and all other big names

Candidate #2:
- Fresh grad with CAP 2.4

The logical reasoning is to hire that dude with 800 years of experience.

But if I tell you that Candidate #2 is a cancer survivor whose attitude towards cancer served as an inspiration to other cancer patients and he also set up a foundation to raise awareness about cancer, would you be more keen to now hire Candidate #2?

I would.

I would think that Candidate #2 has shown that he is capable of overcoming difficulties (battling death is a big deal) with a positive, never say die (literally) attitude so this person is definitely going to make it in life no matter what career route he chooses.

Unfortunately, awesome acts like this are not included in résumés. This is perhaps understandable because it is easy to compare between 800 years and 700 years of experience, but it is hard to compare the awesomeness of donating one kidney to a stranger or what Candidate #2 did.

Although understandable, it doesn’t mean that it is right. Just because things that matter are things that are hard to quantify, doesn’t mean that it should be ignored.

Ok, what I’m really trying to bring across is that I’m sick of using valuation as only consideration for the awesomeness of a startup.

Either I’ve been joining a conversation at a bad timing or something, it seems like valuation/revenue/is-that-company-really-worth-that-much are all people are talking about. Yes no doubt money is important, I disagree that it is the only important thing about a company. In fact, all this talk about money is making starting up unsexy.

Want to know what’s cool? Social impact.

The social impact quotient of a startup is a number on a rating scale that depicts how much this startup changes the world.

Take Facebook for example. Instead of looking at it as a billion dollar company blah blah blah, look at the amazing stuff it has done for Egypt. Instead of looking at Google as another billion dollar company blah blah blah, look at how it has changed our lives.

I think to consider the social impact quotient of a startup and how it can potentially change the world, change the way we live, is what make starting up so mmmm mmm SEXY.

In fact, I believe that companies with a high social impact quotient will naturally have high valuation. I can’t think of any product/service that has changed my life but go bankrupt. So it irks me why social impact of a company gets so little attention.

Don’t people care about changing the world anymore? :(