&gt;<i>So it is not about whether you value your time or money. It is about your risk appetite. It is not that uncommon to do this kind of &quot;lifestyle business&quot; thingie where the primary goal is freedom and time, not necessarily money.</i><p>Why the condescending tone for those businesses?<p>The main motivation behind startup is making loads of money. Similar to casino players, hoping to the big payoff. There&#x27;s more risk of course, but that&#x27;s not the motivation -- else startup founders would be as likely to be daredevils like Evel Knievel.<p>Startups don&#x27;t care much about the actual business aspects (actually making money from what they do) as much as getting VCs to pour money in and then exit.<p>OTOH, the motivation between lifestyle business is not just freedom and time, but also the product. A custom motorcycle shop or some company making a software tool like BBEdit, for example, with extremely passionate people putting tons of hours into what they do, are &quot;lifestyle businesses&quot;. Where in a &quot;startup proper&quot; a founder can be just as happy to sell their to some giant company that while close their main product (acquihires and tech acquisitions).