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Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

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Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#41

Post by nubg »

zhyan7109 wrote: post #33
mojuba wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the market is going to be flooded with this type of soulless books that have no distinct character or style, just pure dry facts? In a sense, "I wrote a book about it" is disingenuous and I agree the author's bullet list would probably be more interesting and would save us a lot of time.

Good feedback, thanks! Will include a version of the original stream of conscience and raw note in a day or two

I would take back my negative feedback in that case! Am reading the book, content is interesting, but I am never sure what is actually your thought vs LLM fillers!

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#42

Post by bpicolo »

mojuba wrote: post #21
nubg wrote: post #15

> Every inbound deserves respect, even if you think you’re not ready. Because the truth is, readiness in M&A isn’t a moment—it’s a mindset. Dear ChatGPT, please rephrase these bulletpoints into a chapter of my book: ... Pray tell why may we not just read the bulletpoints instead? Sold your own company, but unable to use your own words?

So the market is going to be flooded with this type of soulless books that have no distinct character or style, just pure dry facts? In a sense, "I wrote a book about it" is disingenuous and I agree the author's bullet list would probably be more interesting and would save us a lot of time.

Going to be? Already is!

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#45

Post by pryelluw »

zhyan7109 wrote: post #32
gbnwl wrote: post #18

I really enjoy the actual content of the few chapters I read so far, but the styling is 100% LLM, and it's so hard to get through multiple pages of the same exact mannerisms repeated over and over and over. It kind of feels like reading the world's longest LinkedIn post. I really wish this wasn't the case because I really want to take in the story and lessons, but it's literally too fatiguing to get through much in o…

OP here, thanks for this feedback, my workflow was to first have a draft and then feed it into a LLM to fix grammar and improve conciseness. Wished there was a tool (I think folks are already working on) that is similar to what a book editor does which suggests changes as opposed to changing the styling.

Hiring a fairly competent editor is affordable (sometimes even cheap). Specially now that a lot of the commercial copywriting has taken a hit with the ai slop

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#46

Post by oneneptune »

Nice, you fed bullet points into the LLM to make a book. I can stuff your book into an LLM to make bullet points. It's like a wonky non-deterministic hash for both of us to save time and give the author some feel good dopamine at the expense of tokens + authenticity!

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#47

Post by Eridrus »

zhyan7109 wrote: post #31
Eridrus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno how much folks should trust this as more of an account of his specific journey, given this guy apparently didn't do an 83b election and got stuck with a big tax bill (ch 11).

OP here, 83b didn’t apply in my case as I had only stick options, referenced in chapter 11

Yeah, but as a founder, why did you have stock options rather than stock with a vesting agreement?

Even early employees can early exercise and file an 83b.

This chapter is just self inflicted through bad planning, where the correct advice is to vest stock and make sure you file an 83b when you start the company.

The advice everyone should be getting here is not "don't take out a loan", but "make sure you get stock and an 83b"

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#48

Post by Klaus23 »

zhyan7109 wrote: post #32
gbnwl wrote: post #18

I really enjoy the actual content of the few chapters I read so far, but the styling is 100% LLM, and it's so hard to get through multiple pages of the same exact mannerisms repeated over and over and over. It kind of feels like reading the world's longest LinkedIn post. I really wish this wasn't the case because I really want to take in the story and lessons, but it's literally too fatiguing to get through much in o…

OP here, thanks for this feedback, my workflow was to first have a draft and then feed it into a LLM to fix grammar and improve conciseness. Wished there was a tool (I think folks are already working on) that is similar to what a book editor does which suggests changes as opposed to changing the styling.

Perhaps this is what you are looking for: https://www.deepl.com/en/write

It corrects spelling errors and improves awkward wording. You can then go and choose alternative sentences or words. Just don't expect any sort of deeper intelligence.

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#49

Post by malshe »

zhyan7109 wrote: post #32
gbnwl wrote: post #18

I really enjoy the actual content of the few chapters I read so far, but the styling is 100% LLM, and it's so hard to get through multiple pages of the same exact mannerisms repeated over and over and over. It kind of feels like reading the world's longest LinkedIn post. I really wish this wasn't the case because I really want to take in the story and lessons, but it's literally too fatiguing to get through much in o…

OP here, thanks for this feedback, my workflow was to first have a draft and then feed it into a LLM to fix grammar and improve conciseness. Wished there was a tool (I think folks are already working on) that is similar to what a book editor does which suggests changes as opposed to changing the styling.

If it is only to fix grammar and improve conciseness, I find grammarly quite useful. AI goes way beyond these things. Also, while making something concise, AI might make things more difficult for the readers to understand. Worse, it might write something that is totally wrong.

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#50

Post by unyttigfjelltol »

zhyan7109 wrote: post #32
gbnwl wrote: post #18

I really enjoy the actual content of the few chapters I read so far, but the styling is 100% LLM, and it's so hard to get through multiple pages of the same exact mannerisms repeated over and over and over. It kind of feels like reading the world's longest LinkedIn post. I really wish this wasn't the case because I really want to take in the story and lessons, but it's literally too fatiguing to get through much in o…

OP here, thanks for this feedback, my workflow was to first have a draft and then feed it into a LLM to fix grammar and improve conciseness. Wished there was a tool (I think folks are already working on) that is similar to what a book editor does which suggests changes as opposed to changing the styling.

The workflow is fine, the content is fine. The LLM needs to lean in a little harder on your voice and condensing your content— focus on subtraction rather than addition.

The problem is: viewed as a one-off, it’s a gem. But put it on the AI slop conveyor many commenters here apparently are fed all day long, the voice is too similar, it seems like another chapter in that anthology.

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