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

A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 120 posts

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#21

Post by nodamage »

mrkurt wrote: post #10
nodamage wrote: post #6

Headline is rather misleading as neither 1) hitting a $1M in sales or 2) raising $8M in venture funding necessarily means he actually became a millionaire.

Both of those things make a company worth more than $1 million. It's only wealth on paper, but it's legitimate to call a person a millionaire who owns a company who's done one of those.

Having seen too many companies raise millions in venture funding and burn through it to generate millions in revenue (at a loss) with the founders ultimately walking away with nothing, I think that's absurd.

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#22

Post by notahacker »

atomical wrote: post #18
danso wrote: post #17

Kudos to Tesla for not only being OK with this guy having a sidegig but also not trying to be a jerk in demanding a cut. I know that seems like status quo for companies not to demand control over what employees create outside of work, but seems like that line can be blurred when there's enough money involved. (edit: not just having a sidegig, but being able to launch and run his startup for ~1 year while employed at…

What could have motivated them to waste so much time on that? Ego?

The bike light had more value than Theranos' actual "product"?

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#23

Post by sorenjan »

Why are we singing his praises here? He sells a hangover drink, and in order to not have to get FDA approval he calls it a dietary supplement. Chances are this does not work at all, and he's selling something with false promises and no regulation. Are we praising snake oil salesmen for their businesses acumen now?

The Tesla connection seems like nothing more than click bait since it's not related, except maybe gave him connections to be able to raise $450 000 from angel investors.

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#24

Post by drzaiusapelord »

atomical wrote: post #18
danso wrote: post #17

Kudos to Tesla for not only being OK with this guy having a sidegig but also not trying to be a jerk in demanding a cut. I know that seems like status quo for companies not to demand control over what employees create outside of work, but seems like that line can be blurred when there's enough money involved. (edit: not just having a sidegig, but being able to launch and run his startup for ~1 year while employed at…

What could have motivated them to waste so much time on that? Ego?

Elizabeth and Sunny are incredibly corrupt and dishonest people. They simply saw and easy mark in this guy and tried to fleece him. I mean, they've already fleeced millions from investors, whats another con job for them?

The work environment was incredibly toxic as well:

For example, Balwani took it upon himself to keep track of how long employees were working. In one encounter, Balwani brought up security footage that showed a software engineer only working an eight-hour day. He told the employee, "I'm going to fix you." The engineer promptly resigned and left the building, even as Balwani sent a security officer to try and stop him. Balwani then called the cops on the employee.

http://www.businessinsider.com/theranos-former-president-sun...

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#25

Post by trhway »

danso wrote: post #17

Kudos to Tesla for not only being OK with this guy having a sidegig but also not trying to be a jerk in demanding a cut. I know that seems like status quo for companies not to demand control over what employees create outside of work, but seems like that line can be blurred when there's enough money involved. (edit: not just having a sidegig, but being able to launch and run his startup for ~1 year while employed at…

i think (IANAL) that CA moonlighting law protects the [small] guys in both cases.

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#26

Post by danso »

atomical wrote: post #18
danso wrote: post #17

Kudos to Tesla for not only being OK with this guy having a sidegig but also not trying to be a jerk in demanding a cut. I know that seems like status quo for companies not to demand control over what employees create outside of work, but seems like that line can be blurred when there's enough money involved. (edit: not just having a sidegig, but being able to launch and run his startup for ~1 year while employed at…

What could have motivated them to waste so much time on that? Ego?

The author's conclusion stops short of calling her a sociopath but "there is no question that her moral compass was badly askew...Her ambition was voracious and it brooked no interference".

One of the main themes of the book is her worship of Steve Jobs. Ripping someone for having a side project, instead of full dedication to the company, does sound like something Steve Jobs would've done.

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#27

Post by tw1010 »

codyzazulak1 wrote: post #9

This is one of my most favourite "start up" stories ever. It almost feels like the "millennial" way of starting any business nowadays. Quitting your day-job, sitting in a co-op space, risking thousands of personal funds, building, and building, and building, and building, and then finally releasing something with no real idea of it's potential is an almost sure-fire way of failing, and risking your well being at the…

I don't get the obsession americans have with reducing huge demographics into single buckets. (I think part of it is historical, but another part of it might just be because the country is so big that you have to develop some way of reducing all that complexity.) I don't want to be overly negative in response to your largely optimistic post, but the behaviour of millenials lie in a hugely diverse spectrum which needn't be reduced to a single canonical element. Maybe a first good step is to dehabit yourself from always saying "demographic X always seems to behave in Y manner".

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#28

Post by mrkurt »

BigCatStuff wrote: post #16
mrkurt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of those things make a company worth more than $1 million. It's only wealth on paper, but it's legitimate to call a person a millionaire who owns a company who's done one of those.

I would disagree, and I believe that others would as well. A 'millionaire' in my mind is someone with liquid assets of at least one million dollars. The company isn't worth more than $1 million until someone else exchanges shares or money for it for over a million dollars. VC funding does not make someone a millionaire, except in rare cases where founders are allowed to sell shares to 'take money off the table'. VC m…

That's pretty much the age old debate about wealth. But the actual definition of millionaire is "someone whose assets are worth more than $1 million".

A VC investment is literally the exchanging shares for money. No it doesn't make someone liquid. Yes it does set something sorta like a market value, though it's usually really high. In more meaningful terms, that company now has $8 million in cash. There's almost no scenario where it's worth less than $8 million now, because companies at that stage usually have very little debt.

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#29

Post by vidarh »

codyzazulak1 wrote: post #9

This is one of my most favourite "start up" stories ever. It almost feels like the "millennial" way of starting any business nowadays. Quitting your day-job, sitting in a co-op space, risking thousands of personal funds, building, and building, and building, and building, and then finally releasing something with no real idea of it's potential is an almost sure-fire way of failing, and risking your well being at the…

I think it reflects different life phases. I did the "risk it all" approach when I was 19, when "risking it all" meant potentially being back to living at my parents and going back to university.

These days I wouldn't do that, because I have a kid and a mortgage, but I don't regret doing it at 19 - it taught me a hell of a lot of things that I'm not sure I would have if I'd only tried the cautious approach, and it still I think affects how I do things (e.g. it taught me that as much as testing and validating is important, sometimes it's better to just dive in, try, and fail fast - which is right depends how much you're risking and for what; you just need to actually assess your risks first).

Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time

#30

Post by mrkurt »

nodamage wrote: post #21
mrkurt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of those things make a company worth more than $1 million. It's only wealth on paper, but it's legitimate to call a person a millionaire who owns a company who's done one of those.

Having seen too many companies raise millions in venture funding and burn through it to generate millions in revenue (at a loss) with the founders ultimately walking away with nothing, I think that's absurd.

You don't think wealth can be gained and lost? It's weird to quibble over the definition of millionaire when what you really think is absurd is highly volatile assets.
Post reply on HN