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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?

#41

Post by majani »

Retric wrote: post #34
teddyuk wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

out of interest, do the people of the usa generally agree that gambling like this should still be illegal (especially when most other countries allow it?). i'm in the uk and gambling is allowed.

People are going to be all over the map on this one. I see large downsides and minimal upsides to online gambling. I think it should be illegal in practice because people get into massive downward spirals. Now, that does not mean we need no ban ultra low stakes poker, just the kind of games that cause people to go broke. Aka, someone that loses 200$ a month on poker is not a big deal. Someone that's losing 20,000+$ /…

It's trivial for gamblers to get round such a regulation and trivial for bookies to plausibly deny it

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

#42

Post by throwaway877544 »

throwaway2178 wrote: post #39
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…

The ~20 hours per week part feels really interesting - having a nice income while working part-time in a small town feels great, could you share the secret? :)

Part of it is managing high end vacation rentals. I don’t want to mention the rest because it could out me too much.

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

#43

Post by ajeet_dhaliwal »

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…

Do you find being physically fit, skiing, having sex and napping fulfilling enough? I think I'm too obsessed with creating, be it writing novels, video games or new products to be happy living like you do but I also think that can hold me back - I enjoy creating too much whereas the focus should perhaps be to make money instead so you can get the life/freedom you want.

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

#44

Post by awinder »

throwaway2178 wrote: post #39
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…

The ~20 hours per week part feels really interesting - having a nice income while working part-time in a small town feels great, could you share the secret? :)

The secret is that having money is the fastest way to make more money and it’s a much greater multiplier than effort / intelligence / even luck.

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

#45

Post by Retric »

majani wrote: post #41
Retric wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are going to be all over the map on this one. I see large downsides and minimal upsides to online gambling. I think it should be illegal in practice because people get into massive downward spirals. Now, that does not mean we need no ban ultra low stakes poker, just the kind of games that cause people to go broke. Aka, someone that loses 200$ a month on poker is not a big deal. Someone that's losing 20,000+$ /…

It's trivial for gamblers to get round such a regulation and trivial for bookies to plausibly deny it

You can say the same thing about DRM, but even 98% effective is good enough to be very useful. It's the same reason you can't buy lotto tickets with a credit card even if credit cards let you get cash advances that's an extra step that really makes a meaningful difference in people's lives.

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

#46

Post by fratlas »

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…

What industry was the startup? How many years did you work on it? How old when you started? Did you have any previous startups?

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

#47

Post by danesparza »

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 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.

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

#48

Post by Joe8Bit »

rangitatanz wrote: post #6
Joe8Bit wrote: post #4

Exited with two co-founders when our runway ran out. Sold our IP and assets for a modest amount to our main competitor. I realised that (as CTO) the main area I couldn't contribute to was 'the business' of running a successful company. So I decided to remedy that, I joined McKinsey and left last year as an Associate Partner. I'm now the VP Engineering at a fast growing tech company (250+ people) and the impact I can…

That is very interesting! How'd you manage to come to the conclusion to go somewhere like McKinsey? How'd you get in? How long were you there and what sort of stuff were you learning?

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. Then I slowly moved more and more into the non-tech topics.

I was there for almost exactly four years. Learned all kinds of things, but most importantly how to communicate and structure my thinking in a way that works with people senior people from non-tech backgrounds.

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

#49

Post by Joe8Bit »

rankmarshall wrote: post #14
Joe8Bit wrote: post #4

Exited with two co-founders when our runway ran out. Sold our IP and assets for a modest amount to our main competitor. I realised that (as CTO) the main area I couldn't contribute to was 'the business' of running a successful company. So I decided to remedy that, I joined McKinsey and left last year as an Associate Partner. I'm now the VP Engineering at a fast growing tech company (250+ people) and the impact I can…

Great job! You mention you left McKinsey, but Quantum Black seems to be a McKinsey company. Do you mean you left consulting and moved into an operations role?

Good catch! QB is a wholly owned subsidiary (and it feels like a VERY different company) so I tend to think of them as separate entities. And yes consulting into operational role.

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

#50

Post by throwaway877544 »

awinder wrote: post #44
throwaway2178 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ~20 hours per week part feels really interesting - having a nice income while working part-time in a small town feels great, could you share the secret? :)

The secret is that having money is the fastest way to make more money and it’s a much greater multiplier than effort / intelligence / even luck.

Yeah it helps. I got a $500k line of credit with something like a 2% interest rate last year. Makes it easy to pounce on opportunities.
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