Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 492 posts

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#231

Post by sfifs »

Terr_ wrote: post #151
Crazyontap wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kinda expected this as the top comment. It's just so simple stupid yet it's a wonder that a lot of people discover it the hard way and most still haven't. I think it just comes down to fear of rejection in the end. Making a product, adding features, working on things and even showing your "cool" demo to friends isn't same as asking strangers for money.. because people can say a million nice things about what you ha…

> a lot of people discover it the hard way and most still haven't Some of it may be "morality" component, for lack of a better word. Some people want the world to be one where people and ideas advance on merit rather than via popularity or "knowing the right people", and act upon that hope subconsciously or as a justification for avoiding unfamiliar risk. I'd wager it's also a bit more common among software developer…

Every job sooner or later is a sales job. If we're not teaching this in the education system, I'd argue we're doing a poor job of teaching morals in the education system - although the American system - at least in the better schools - does a much better job of this than systems in Asia.

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#232

Post by giorgioz »

mohanmcgeek wrote: post #112
giorgioz wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this question should have been formulated in a less punishing tone. Either (s)he started to hire minorities EVEN more because they had some advantage. Either if (s)he was discriminating them before but (s)he realized the mistake pointing out what was doing was wrong it's not useful given (s)he tellin it already and it might only make the person assume a defensive position about the previous stance.

No matter, race still seems to be a criteria in their hiring process and that's.. racist.

It was good you asked. It was threatning you immediately added the legal punishments. YES if (s)he was discrimating against minorities it would have been indeed racism or some other form of xenophobia. The point is:

1) YOU DON'T KNOW THAT YET (s)he was discriminating minorities. And given you already made a sentence the person it's likely to not tell you now. For example at my current company we almost hire exclusively non-white people. We in fact discriminate positively in hiring non-white because generally they provide more value for money because OTHERS discriminate them and lower their range of offers. We are taking advantage of other people's racism and in doing so we are also fixing the salary gap caused by racism. We will still hire minorities/non-white when the salary gap will be gone but we'll stop discriminating them positively.

2) PEOPLE WON'T SPEAK OF THEIR MISTAKES ANYMORE IF YOU JUDGE THEM

In the case where the person was indeed racist in the past the person said it was a mistake (s)he wish that (s)he would have not made and (s)he informing others of the mistake so they won't do the same. You're actively punishing sentencing someone that came clean on it's own. If you do this less people will come out saying they were wrong. Example: When I was a teenager I found out I was mistaken in throwing contact lenses in the WC when they expir because they end up in the ocean and add plastic. TOILET !== GARBAGE I posted the article that had informed on not doing that on Facebook and said I had done it wrong to inform also others that might not know yet. One guy came after me with "You are dumb, you should not throw anything in the toilet". Yes definitely I had made mistakes, I had just told so. The guy had not helped me become better. I had become better already thanks to the article. The guy was just there to insult me for my previous shortcomings. Maybe someone else would have took that negatively and stopped reporting the mistakes (s)he made in fear of being told (s)he was stupid. Luckily I've enough self-worth to not be afraid to show my mistakes if I know it will help others.

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#233

Post by ronyfadel »

Zealotux wrote: post #160
can16358p wrote: post #121

Not exactly "business" from a company perspective, but: Learning Solidity. I've been in crypto space for a long time, always wanted to learn Solidity to write contracts, but always postponed. Played with some toy code in the past years and that was it. Recently got back in the scene and saw how many new business opportunities it opens and how financially feasible they are now I hate myself for not going more serious…

How do you get opportunities in that scene? Do you get paid in cash or cryptocurrencies? Aren't you afraid of an eventual impending crash of the markets? I also thought of learning about so-called smart-contracts but I'm skeptical of investing time in something that looks like it could crash any day, or maybe I'm just missing a big opportunity.

If you’re afraid of the market crashing, just cash out as soon as you get paid, e.g. on a monthly basis.

Long term, this thing seems to be growing non-stop.

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#234

Post by nkrisc »

eej71 wrote: post #194
raverbashing wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember the ABCs A - Always B - Be C - Selling That is, seize the opportunities of presenting your work and your company.

I'll be that guy. Actually it's Always Be Closing. Obligatory Glenngary Glen Ross scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7y6EOGY87U&t=104s

Of course, but it’s funnier and more memorable when it’s wrong.

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#235

Post by can16358p »

arkmm wrote: post #132
can16358p wrote: post #121

Not exactly "business" from a company perspective, but: Learning Solidity. I've been in crypto space for a long time, always wanted to learn Solidity to write contracts, but always postponed. Played with some toy code in the past years and that was it. Recently got back in the scene and saw how many new business opportunities it opens and how financially feasible they are now I hate myself for not going more serious…

Any resources you'd recommend for someone trying to get back into the scene after a long hiatus? Looking for nuanced/informative discussions without too much hype.

Sure. I'd suggest getting into Discord communities, of course not "shitcoins" and "ponzi-like tokens" but the ones that do actual developments for NFT platforms, DeFis, DAOs and blockchain gaming (which I personally believe has a great future).

Learning Solidity for EVM-based chains and Rust (my next personal goal) for Solana is a good start.

A toy NFT project (or whatever interests you) on your local chain might be a nice start to get used to the mechanics.

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#236

Post by e12e »

flurly wrote: post #181

I used to immediately launch on Hacker News, Reddit, Product Hunt, etc. the moment I finished my side projects. The problem I found with this approach is 1. Often times the product is a leaky bucket, and you experience a massive spike in traffic and very quickly see your growth asymptotically approach zero. 2. These platforms often times also are filled with people waiting to abuse your platform. For flurly, all of m…

That's https://www.graphjson.com/guides/about ?

Looks quite interesting - nice to see someone else thinking (and realizing) that you could go a long way with clickhouse + search/filter/visualization.

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#237

Post by can16358p »

can16358p wrote: post #121

Not exactly "business" from a company perspective, but: Learning Solidity. I've been in crypto space for a long time, always wanted to learn Solidity to write contracts, but always postponed. Played with some toy code in the past years and that was it. Recently got back in the scene and saw how many new business opportunities it opens and how financially feasible they are now I hate myself for not going more serious…

(Retroactive comment after seeing downvotes: wow, seems like there are many crypto haters who downvote without even commenting with a solid reason. Super-constructive.)

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#238

Post by Lendal »

throw8932894 wrote: post #200
endymi0n wrote: post #137

To paraphrase my brilliant cofounder, mentor and tough sparring partner: "The biggest lie you techies tell to yourselves is 'Build it and they will come'. Nope. Nobody ever comes by. I've beaten competitors with the better product again and again. Know why? Because marketing builds growth, growth builds revenue and revenue enables hiring brilliant people to fix your product, all the while the brilliant product people…

"Build it and they come" works, for example Hotmail and Google did not invest into marketing initially. But it works in non saturated market with a few players.

Playing the lottery works too. Evidence: I see lottery winners. Therefore it must be a good business plan.

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#239

Post by mittermayr »

I added a simple self-made affiliate system. It had two implementations. One allowed to purchase 10 or 20 "accounts" in bulk, resell for any price you want. And the other one meant that if two other people signed up for a free account, your account was moved up to the second level (basic, premium, pro). Once one of your referred accounts upgraded, then your account was moved up to the highest tier.

I implemented that over a weekend and it took off dramatically after that.

Re: Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?

#240

Post by 8b16380d »

ackbar03 wrote: post #196
wolframhempel wrote: post #169

Creating an on-premise version of our product for enterprises (as opposed to a pure SaaS version) Turns out there is still a lot of money in selling technology to large enterprises that they can host and run themselves on an annual licensing model. We were initially afraid of the long and high-touch enterprise sales cycles, complex procurement processes and enterprise integration requirements (complex permissions, LD…

How do you deal with maintenence and stuff? Do you need on-site engineers? With SaaS you can just do it remotely but if it's on site you need to send someone over I guess

A previous org did it with a tarball and install/upgrade script. Docker is also more prevalent, so handing them an image may work well too.
Post reply on HN