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As I write this the above comment is 31 points! Please don't view this as a complaint, and to eof especially, I'm not saying the comment isn't worth that value. It just seems like an anomaly to me. Is it because everyone wants to know what the business is?
7 points 18 minutes later. People really want to know! I imagine it will stop when/if it is answered.
Congratulations -- but uhm... shouldn't you check back in with Patrick and make sure his needs are met? I mean, he's Customer #1, and it sounds like your reaction to that was to abandon him. I might be misreading, or Patrick may have backfilled you, but the 1 thing I know about business to be more true than most things, is you take care of your early customers, specifically if they were good to you.
Evolving relationships are a fact of life in consulting. Sometimes relationships grow, or even engulf the whole business, like Lucky Strike did for SCDP in Mad Men and Microsoft has done with a number of security consultancies. Other times, relationships become vestigial or vanish entirely. The entire point of consulting arrangements is to allow businesses to set the most flexible and reasonable terms to work under.…
It's very nice to see asking for help on HN have a tangible effect in peoples lives. Another thing I really like about this particular story is that it is not 'charity' but a helping you to make you stronger so you can help yourself (and apparently others!). Really neat. I wished there was more stuff like this on HN.
This place is becoming just like Reddit... In a great way! People helping people. And in a very Hacker News sort-of way, helping people get a business off the ground! He's the master of his own destiny now and that's awesome.
That is a fascinating observation... because interestingly enough the business of Reddit and Hackernews is focused only on the community itself, and nothing else.
It almost reminds me of the Zappos story and how they treat their employees.
Make your employees #1 - and you will prosper. Make your community #1 - and you will prosper.
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Business number 2 for needmoney, building the Theme Factory. I can't decide if I want to customize themes or hire a designer. I've tweaked my own theme a dozen times this year.
My rule is : if you think you might need a designer, you need a designer. My life (and work) has been infinitely better since I let go and paid good money to good designers to do good work. Find one, build a relationship and trust and then trust their judgement.
That's basically my thought process.
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$400 USD is quite prosperous in many parts of the world. Not in the US, or the wealthier nations.
Really? Like where? Not being sarcastic but even in a cheap place like Bangladesh, you need atleast $700/month to have a decent hacker life (constant electricity, decent internet, own apt, a hacker-friendly environment - coffee, music, hobby, junk food, etc).
There are probably people in parts of the USA who are surviving on $700 a month.
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Really? Like where? Not being sarcastic but even in a cheap place like Bangladesh, you need atleast $700/month to have a decent hacker life (constant electricity, decent internet, own apt, a hacker-friendly environment - coffee, music, hobby, junk food, etc).
400$ a month is doable in China but forget about nightlife or cockroach-free apartments. Disclaimer: I lived a few months in Shenzhen.
Shenzen ain't China and 400$ is a lot of money in the rest of the country.
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If you can learn the power of compound interest at your age, you're going to retire very comfortably.
I read some of the Wikipedia article about it. However, the bank won't give you 20% yearly, yet barely enough to cover the inflation. Nor the stock market and real estate do, so I wonder how compound interest would help and in any way?
Let's say you started investing/saving at the age of 18 up until 65, and lets say the amount you put in per month over that period of time was $800 per month - this is pretty low, given how much your income should increase over time.
At a conservative rate of return of 5%, at age 65, it would be worth around $1.8 million, $1.35 million of that being the compound 5%, and only roughly $450,000 being what you put in.
Essentially, the earlier you start saving, the bigger your runway, and the more comfortable you'll be later in life, without having to compromise on your lifestyle right there and then.
The later you start, the more you have to put in each month to get the same outcome at the end.
Something I wish my parents had taught me :)
Of course, if you start your own business, and are successful enough, the numbers look way, way, better. This is essentially just your fallback position.
It's very nice to see asking for help on HN have a tangible effect in peoples lives. Another thing I really like about this particular story is that it is not 'charity' but a helping you to make you stronger so you can help yourself (and apparently others!). Really neat. I wished there was more stuff like this on HN.
After some of the other tech focused user submitted news sites outgrew their roots, I wandered around for years not feeling compelled to join another community. HN is different, it is the reason I joined and this story highlights why.
My life has change (and also my little mind) thanks to Hacker News. I should say "I read enough, yet a lot", may be more than 500 pages (I already printed 200 or so). Not only my financial situation changed, but also the way I view the world. Just 400 days before now, $25 is my monthly money pocket that I get from my parents and it should cover all my expenses (except clothes, food and obviously housing). Now I have…
Don't spend all your money on toys... The few hundred dollars you've spent already, had you invested it in your business, or even put it into savings, could be worth tens of thousands or even millions a few decades from now.
Also, pick toys which have utility, make you work out, teach you something, and are different than the past toys you've bought. Try to learn from play too.
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Well, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you all and tell you I run a bakery. I know you guys were expecting a tech company. I wasn't actually planning on revealing this, but you guys seem to really want to know and the community has been good to me. And maybe you can give me more advice. I actually have a degree in CS and I love to code, but I tried for a while and never managed to make money on my own with my tech…
Not exactly what I was expecting, but interesting nonetheless. Do you feel that the hacker business approach articles featured here helped your bakery succeed, or did they just give you impetus you needed to get started launching your own business? Just wondering. Edit: Why not build a web app for your bakery? Allow customers to order via the web. If you provide some sort of customization so that customers can reques…