Sounded like those humor shows where the Rich Cousin said to the poor cousin he had soooooo many problems in his life, like having to buy all Christmas dinner ingredients from France ...
What no one talks about when running and selling a business
41–50 of 198 posts
Re: What no one talks about when running and selling a business
#42Buying a Tesla is embarrassing. My net worth is definitely higher than this dude's, and I don't have a Tesla.
Re: What no one talks about when running and selling a business
#43I'm not sure I love the article, but I agree with the author's sentiment. I'm 4 years in to a successful bootstrapped startup, and I've lost many close acquaintances. I simply don't have time to keep the social connections alive and I have not prioritized them. I'm somewhat introverted by nature so this is not really a major concern of mine at this time, but I suspect it may be a regret later.
What is challenging for me is the fact that most people cannot relate to my life. They can't understand why you'd work 60+ hours a week on a fledgling business. They can't understand the obsession and inability to "turn it off." They don't understand what it takes to get a customer to actually pay you, let alone build something people enjoy using and solves problems. I do find that many folks assume you just "lucked" your way in to success.
And I think bootstrapped business owners have it the worst of all. It's comparably easy to spend VC cash once you get funding, rather than money from "your own pocket." It's not hard to justify hiring 5 people when the VCs explicitly tell you that's what the money is for. Bootstrapping a successful business is indeed a rare feat, and only the people who've been there can understand exactly how all consuming and difficult it is. (At least, that's been my experience so far)
Re: What no one talks about when running and selling a business
#44I am in my 40s and I work with a young married guy in his mid 20s who i would consider a level 1 software engineer on a scale of 1 to 5. He is a dreamer thinking he can strike it rich with his great startup idea working on it part time because he hears stories of all the people who sold their startups and thinks that's such a glamorous life.
First I told him about survivorship bias and laid out basically the same statistics as in the article. Then I showed him that he could double his income in 3-5 years just by learning the craft of software engineering - risk free -- and still have plenty of time to enjoy his new marriage and enjoy his hobbies.
If his own company was struggling, he would be up late worrying about it. If the company he is working for is struggling and he keeps his skills up, he could easily get another job in our metro area. It's been that way for me for over 20 years.
I enjoy being a corporate drone, I go to work every day and leave the job at work -- and I'm a technical lead -- imagine how easy it is if you are "just" a senior developer? If you are a two income family in a good job market with one income as the average senior software engineer, you are guaranteed to be well within the top 10% of earners and be able to live a pretty good life.
Re: What no one talks about when running and selling a business
#45Buckminster Fuller, considering ego-suicide: "I see the hydrogen atom doesn't have to earn a living before behaving like a hydrogen atom. In fact, as best I can see, only human beings operate on the basis of 'having to earn a living'. The concept is one introduced into social conventions, only by the temporal power structure's dictum of the ages. If I am doing what God's evolutionary strategy needs to have accomplished, I need spend no further time worrying about such matters."
Re: What no one talks about when running and selling a business
#46The brutally honest truth about this guy is that he's an insecure prick who loves boasting > Only 0.4% of all businesses make it to $10M in annual revenue. We made it almost halfway through...When I sold my startup, we had 100 people working with us. > Unfortunately, I no longer have very many friends... > ...Tesla...$300 pairs of jeans, $450 pairs of boots, concrete countertops...trips to New Zealand no longer bothe…
If he only has seven figures, he needs to stop spending like that. Most people who make money all at once blow it within seven years. You can only spend about 4% a year of your net worth. Even that's pushing it with today's returns.
Re: What no one talks about when running and selling a business
#47I also sold my startup. same story as far as revenue, exit etc. I'm not sure that selling your company was the reason for your social issues. I've had the best year of my life post acquisition - spending more time with family, friends and thinking what's next. constantly thinking about what's next, it's actually annoying that I can't turn it off. The "how much did you make" question is super annoying and it happens b…
I think this was a pretty shallow article. The author comes off as somewhat abrasive personality-wise. He's a natural born leader - we are reassured multiple times - but he seems to repeatedly annoy people in his life and can't figure out how to get 3 or 4 band-mates to follow him. OK. A lot of the money troubles are more about wealth inequality than anything specific to the startup world. When you're wealthy, you ne…
Interesting. I didn't have that reaction at all. I grew up in a ridiculously wealthy community, and saw the exact problems with wealth differences that he described. And I think he identifies an important truth: most of time, successful businesses are built by people who really love doing the business, and cashing out means giving that up. Sure, some people are lucky enough to recreate that feeling in a new situation. But lightning doesn't always strike twice. The author is just advising us to realize what we give up as well as what we gain.
Re: What no one talks about when running and selling a business
#48> Material things do not make people happy, at all. Everybody says this, all the time. I would like to propose the controversial theory that actually material things do make people happy, at least within certain constraints. When I was younger I had shitty cheap material things which made me unhappy. Now I have better stuff which makes me happier. I used to have a shitty unairconditioned apartment. That made me unhap…
the point you're making is exactly the reason for the cliche of 'money wont buy you happiness". it is the thought that buying these things (that give us momentary happiness) will equate to long term happiness. in 20,30,40 years, how airconditioned your apartment was (or wasn't) will have little bearing on your overall level of happiness at that point. also, your last few sentences contradict what you wrote earlier. y…
Not having air conditioning and sweating when there's 40 degrees Celsius is pretty unhappy moment. Not sure how he contradicted himself there. I can totally see where he is coming from. Having comfortable car, comfortable place to live can certainly give you long term happiness. I am sure in 20,30,40 years down the road if I won't have comfortable car and comfortable place to live I will be unhappy.
On that whole note. What is happiness? It's what we ourselves decide it to be. For me happiness is when I am content with myself.
Re: What no one talks about when running and selling a business
#49The brutally honest truth about this guy is that he's an insecure prick who loves boasting > Only 0.4% of all businesses make it to $10M in annual revenue. We made it almost halfway through...When I sold my startup, we had 100 people working with us. > Unfortunately, I no longer have very many friends... > ...Tesla...$300 pairs of jeans, $450 pairs of boots, concrete countertops...trips to New Zealand no longer bothe…
It's ironic that you see him this way ... cause he's trying to say that seeing him this way is one of the things he hates and wishes was otherwise.
And by the way, it doesn't help if he goes quiet, never talking about this wealth or experience. Then he's just seen as aloof an heartless.
It's just true. Becoming wealthy changes things for most people. Maybe not Warren Buffet.
Re: What no one talks about when running and selling a business
#50Is it possible that his experience is not representative? Edit: Digging a bit further, it looks like the startup that he sold was Valet Gourmet which was a food delivery business in North Carolina and he worked on it for ~12 years. That's probably a bit longer than the tech startup timelines we tend to think of here.
>That's probably a bit longer than the tech startup timelines we tend to think of here.
That is something I learnt from my startups, running and selling them; things will take far longer and people quit way too soon. If you start a business, any business, thinking you will make fuck you money in 15 years is much more relaxed and better chances of success in my experience. Plenty of side projects I made over 10 years ago are still popular running on crappy tech and companies I co founded 20 years ago still exist and make profits. People think a lot changes but it doesn't; it changes on HN and Reddit but not the rest of the world even though the big changes like mobile happened; with a sprinkle of responsive over ancient html/css suddenly people use it again like it just launched.
Edit; in no way I want to imply to live on ramen for 15 years; live a good life all that time, but, at least in your mind, think the riches/exit will happen in a long time from now. It makes it all less bank or bust stress.