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Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

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Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#71

Post by cedricd »

gherkinnn wrote: post #61
bastardoperator wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work for an ultra mega corp and honestly the amount of meetings would be comical if it wasn't so monotonous. The recent meetings have centered around increasing capacity, I've tried to explain that less meetings would give folks more time to produce value, nobody gives a shit so I stopped caring too.

I have come to the conclusion that those kinds of meetings have nothing to do with exchanging information, finding solutions, or anything remotely related to creating value for the customer (tm) . Though I have yet to figure out what they’re really about. An easy way to pass the time? People relying on them to validate their salary? The only way a weasly middle manager can get himself heard? Cargo culting? Probably a…

I know this isn't a fun answer but in my experience it's just bad process and culture

Basically nothing can be done / no decisions made without a meeting. Why? Because X number of people feel they need buy in. If you don't get them onboard and give them a chance to voice opinions you'll be pushing uphill to get work done.

And meetings are actually a fairly effective way to do that -- you have a group's attention for a set amount of time. If you just sent a doc then you'd have to follow up, etc.

That sort of becomes the default, so there are meetings even when that sort of buy in isn't necessary, bc meetings are just how things get done.

Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#72

Post by ptmcc »

CleverLikeAnOx wrote: post #45
atwebb wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you getting low risk 3.5% interest these days?

I think the 3.5% number is not for low risk investing. Additionally, you would need to make something more like 5.5% to account for inflation. Still a fairly conservative number for investments in equities.

The oft-quoted 4% figure is accounting for inflation. The nominal average return of a balanced portfolio over time is more like 7-8%.

Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#73

Post by groby_b »

offtop5 wrote: post #58
bravura wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you retire at forty with a million in the bank, how do you make it if you live till 80?

Move to a country where I can live off the 40k -> 60k a year an interest or whatnot. This basically means either Southeast Asia, or some parts of Latin America. Asian languages tend to be extremely hard, and it might be a lot easier to sort of blend in with the populace in Latin America. The last thing I want to do in my retirement is draw needless attention to myself.

You assume that a million generates $40k to $60k, inflation-adjusted, for the next 40 years?

I suppose that's one assumption to make. You know that the last time the US GDP grew more than 4% was back in 2000, right? And 2010 worldwide? Both with a continued downward trend since at least the 60's?

(This obviously doesn't preclude >4% ROI, but that in turn means increasing income inequality, and at some point, there's a price to be paid for that)

Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#74

Post by kingnothing »

offtop5 wrote: post #58
bravura wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you retire at forty with a million in the bank, how do you make it if you live till 80?

Move to a country where I can live off the 40k -> 60k a year an interest or whatnot. This basically means either Southeast Asia, or some parts of Latin America. Asian languages tend to be extremely hard, and it might be a lot easier to sort of blend in with the populace in Latin America. The last thing I want to do in my retirement is draw needless attention to myself.

You can also live just fine off that amount in most American cities. $40k is basically $2,500 / mo after tax.

In the Atlanta area for example, there are plenty of nice 2-3 bedroom houses for $200,000 or even less, which puts your mortgage at $1,000 / mo. That leaves $1,500 / mo for a car, utilities, and food, which is plenty doable. Rent out a room if you want to for more income.

Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#75

Post by mraza007 »

switz wrote: post #47

My company is ran similarly; though I never raised VC and bootstrapped my way to profitability over 5 years as a solo founder. I provide a simple platform for people to play their friends on high quality CS:GO servers, while keeping track of their stats/wins/losses. https://popflash.site If you have played a lot of Counterstrike, have real-world technical skills, and are interested in a flexible autonomous environmen…

Hey what tech stack powers your project, I would love to know

Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#76

Post by trustfundbaby »

eastbayjake wrote: post #24
pelasaco wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you dont have to be in a $MEGACORP to have tons of useless meetings. You just have to move to a company where the people are proud to do SCRUM by the book, with reviews and retrospective (each one 4 hours long)

Hoping this is hyperbole, but if your reviews or retrospectives are actually four hours long, you should politely point out that these do not need to be more than an hour (and many mature scrum teams do both in an hour total)

Why ... so you can be labelled a malcontent, non-team player, denied promotions and eventually managed out of the org at first opportunity? :)

Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#77

Post by [deleted] »

switz wrote: post #47

My company is ran similarly; though I never raised VC and bootstrapped my way to profitability over 5 years as a solo founder. I provide a simple platform for people to play their friends on high quality CS:GO servers, while keeping track of their stats/wins/losses. https://popflash.site If you have played a lot of Counterstrike, have real-world technical skills, and are interested in a flexible autonomous environmen…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#78

Post by stocknoob »

war1025 wrote: post #53
CleverLikeAnOx wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an idea called FIRE (Financial Independence / Retire Early). The first half is having enough money to not need to earn again, so you are not dependent on work or others. Once this is achieved, then you can retire early if you would like. The conventional wisdom in this community is that if you invest a sum of money in equities, you can withdraw a certain percentage annually without ever running out of money.…

I'm pretty well versed in the whole FIRE thing, and find myself more or less on that path. One conclusion I've come to is that after people "retire early", they almost never actually stop making money. It just tends to end up being more entrepreneurial stuff that they make money off. You don't "have to" work, but you "might as well", and all the sudden you may even find yourself in a more lucrative gig than you start…

Yep. The type of person who gets a high-paying enough job (and has the discipline) to save $1M usually doesn't have trouble getting extra work if they want. But now there's no pressure, they can take "fun" gigs that couldn't have supported them previously (musician, librarian, teacher, etc.).

Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#79

Post by switz »

mraza007 wrote: post #75
switz wrote: post #47

My company is ran similarly; though I never raised VC and bootstrapped my way to profitability over 5 years as a solo founder. I provide a simple platform for people to play their friends on high quality CS:GO servers, while keeping track of their stats/wins/losses. https://popflash.site If you have played a lot of Counterstrike, have real-world technical skills, and are interested in a flexible autonomous environmen…

Hey what tech stack powers your project, I would love to know

Mostly normal stuff; node.js, postgres, redis, some react, Sourcemod/c++ for the in-game management. Nothing overtly fancy nor magical.

Re: Ask HN: Which companies work like Gumroad?

#80

Post by Varqu »

Chipping in as the co-founder of a job board startup - https://swissdevjobs.ch

We are:

- 2 co-founders

- 2 up to 4 people part-time as contractors

- full remote, almost zero offline retreats

- growing the user base around 10% MoM

- all communication happens on our Discord server

- bootstrapped, no founding

It's not clear if this model will scale easily, but I can see us growing to at least 10-15 people this way.

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