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Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

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Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#71

Post by cthulhuology »

First company I sold... paid off student loans, traveled around for a year.... then started a consultancy..

Second company I sold... invested in a friend's business (she's now my wife), self funded another business (that one failed to find a buyer).... went back to work...

Third company I sold... paid down mortgages, put kids into private schools, fixed up house, self funded another business ( currently a going concern, break even)...

What do I do now? Keep working... started a new businesses and handed off day to day operations to my business partner, and am now taking a new job so I can move to Europe.

What do I plan to do in the future... same thing, keep working, looking for interesting projects, probably start more business.

Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#72

Post by toomuchtodo »

throwaway877544 wrote: post #28

The startup nearly killed me but I cashed out ~$3M after taxes. It’s all invested in a portfolio of index funds. I moved to a ski town in Colorado and ski 3x per week and volunteer teach fitness classes 4x per week. My wife and I have plenty of time and money so we “live sexy” - basically we’re swingers. We try to hook up with others for a threesome our foursome once a month or so. It is insanely fun but only works b…

Thanks for re-upping my motivation this morning :) Congrats on enjoying life!

Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#73

Post by justanon1234wh »

_kyran wrote: post #66
justanon1234wh wrote: post #62

I'll do a throwaway for this. Company had an exit that was about $120m personally for me about 3 years ago. It was a hard slog of about 14 years during which time me and my cofounders got sick of each other, most relationships that I came in with blew up and so on. It is so very strange to not work. First off, everyone all the time is lightly nagging you to work. I don't want to work! I already did that. Surprisingly…

Curious, can you share what your hobbies/projects for this year are?

Trying to be vague but I have two hobbies that were sort of life goals and I just threw money at them until I got where I wanted. Sort of my long term gift to myself for finishing the business. I think both could've been done for a lot less but I hit a point where I said this is important to me and I owe myself a nice present.

Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#74

Post by justanon1234wh »

Ionis75 wrote: post #68
justanon1234wh wrote: post #62

I'll do a throwaway for this. Company had an exit that was about $120m personally for me about 3 years ago. It was a hard slog of about 14 years during which time me and my cofounders got sick of each other, most relationships that I came in with blew up and so on. It is so very strange to not work. First off, everyone all the time is lightly nagging you to work. I don't want to work! I already did that. Surprisingly…

That lifestyle sounds amazing coming from a late 20 year old. Hoping I can achieve that in the next 5 years too :) What was the company specializing in that you co-founded?

Good luck! It was a stunningly unremarkable software company that never makes it on Hacker News. Slogged it out, bunch of false starts, ended up going pretty well after a rough first year where it almost blew up and a really rough fifth year where it again almost blew up.

Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#75

Post by iamben »

qaq wrote: post #60
danesparza wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How interesting. I'm happy for you that your life has turned out the way you wanted. I do wonder what your 60-70 year old self will say about you now.

Anecdotal experience from talking to old people or those with serious illness or those who had a near death experience. I never once heard I wish I worked more, the recurring theme is more in line with I wish I spent more time with loved ones and had more fun.

The Bronnie Ware book about this is great (Top 5 Regrets of the Dying), summarised here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/palliative-nurse-sha...

Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#76

Post by jackgolding »

throwaway877544 wrote: post #28

The startup nearly killed me but I cashed out ~$3M after taxes. It’s all invested in a portfolio of index funds. I moved to a ski town in Colorado and ski 3x per week and volunteer teach fitness classes 4x per week. My wife and I have plenty of time and money so we “live sexy” - basically we’re swingers. We try to hook up with others for a threesome our foursome once a month or so. It is insanely fun but only works b…

Assuming startup you mean a tech businesses, how have you found moving to a town? Do you think having a wife is the primary reason you don't get bored to death doing that?

I grew up in a glorified shed on a small fishing island hours off the coast of Australia so the simple life in beautiful nature is something I miss. However I imagine it would be so boring not being able to work or socialise with similar people (tech minded.)

Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#77

Post by jackgolding »

sjg007 wrote: post #63
Joe8Bit wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew that the only way I'd learn is by doing it a lot in different contexts. Which led me to strategy consulting. Which led me to McKinsey, due to it being the preeminent player in that space. I applied to a then nascent part of McKinsey (that is now very mature) called Digital McKinsey, as someone who could help clients build and transform engineering and product organisations. To be a CTO/VP Eng for hire, almost.…

Can you give some recommendations or some readings on how to communicate and structure your thinking that you found useful? Even a couple blog posts.

The pyramid principle is probably the book you want to read on this.

Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#78

Post by TYPE_FASTER »

throwaway877544 wrote: post #28

The startup nearly killed me but I cashed out ~$3M after taxes. It’s all invested in a portfolio of index funds. I moved to a ski town in Colorado and ski 3x per week and volunteer teach fitness classes 4x per week. My wife and I have plenty of time and money so we “live sexy” - basically we’re swingers. We try to hook up with others for a threesome our foursome once a month or so. It is insanely fun but only works b…

How's ski town life? We're looking at moving to the mountains, not sure what it's like never having lived there full-time before.

Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#79

Post by ajeet_dhaliwal »

hedonistic7283 wrote: post #64
ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in the long run my life would be better if I struck a better balance between your approach and my own and it's something I've been thinking of doing, in particular with getting healthier.

If you’re looking to strike a balance, this image might be helpful to you. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b9/4e/0a/b94e0afba9b340e414fd... I think OP’s Hedonism is a perfectly reasonable way to stay happy. Contrary to religious beliefs, having regular, consistent, and healthy sex is good for the mind and body. Even your Kama Sutra is a guide to a virtuous and gracious living that discusses the nature of love, family…

Interesting, hadn't heard of Mohism before. I'm not looking for more hedonism and I'm fine with the amount of sex I have. I'm talking more about overlooking my health by spending too much time working specifically. It's a startup issue time management issue I think, I (and others like me I guess) keep thinking once things are more stable I'll have more time... but don't want to end up waiting until it's too late.

Re: Ask HN: Founders who sold their company, what do you do?

#80

Post by [deleted] »

ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #79
hedonistic7283 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re looking to strike a balance, this image might be helpful to you. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b9/4e/0a/b94e0afba9b340e414fd... I think OP’s Hedonism is a perfectly reasonable way to stay happy. Contrary to religious beliefs, having regular, consistent, and healthy sex is good for the mind and body. Even your Kama Sutra is a guide to a virtuous and gracious living that discusses the nature of love, family…

Interesting, hadn't heard of Mohism before. I'm not looking for more hedonism and I'm fine with the amount of sex I have. I'm talking more about overlooking my health by spending too much time working specifically. It's a startup issue time management issue I think, I (and others like me I guess) keep thinking once things are more stable I'll have more time... but don't want to end up waiting until it's too late.

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