Untitled topic • Hacker News Board

Re: undefined

#81

Post by yamtaddle » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:41 PM UTC

fdghsjakjhf__ wrote: post #49

masterof0 wrote: post #31

I can only imagine your lifestyle in India with $18,036 / month , that's probably the equivalent of making 60k a month in the US? Wish you the best, I'm inspired.

No, it's the equivalent of making ~$18,036 / month. Do you think Mercedes makes a cheap version of an SLK for the "poor Indians"? I make more than the OP and live in his/her part of the world. Luxury items are more expensive than they are in the US. That bigger house you can afford? You're still paying US prices or higher for your furniture and appliances. Same goes for autos, edu, cars, wine, dining, etc. Generally…

I am entirely sure that like 90% of what my annual spending goes toward in a typical year would be a lot cheaper in India. Food, services (restaurants, childcare, cleaning, delivery, healthcare, barbers, dentists, and so on), housing.

I'm not buying tens of thousands of dollars of cars and high-end electronics per year. Or fancy clothes. I'm buying tens of thousands of dollars of services, housing, and food.

Re: undefined

#82

Post by SeanLuke » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:43 PM UTC

mddanishyusuf wrote: post #36

SeanLuke wrote: post #29

I was very confused by this title. $18k in 5 years is $300/mo.

[flagged]

Of course. But that's not what it says.

Re: undefined

#83

Post by codegeek » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:49 PM UTC

masterof0 wrote: post #31

I can only imagine your lifestyle in India with $18,036 / month , that's probably the equivalent of making 60k a month in the US? Wish you the best, I'm inspired.

I see some people arguing that 18K in India is the same as elsewhere. Don't pay attention to that. 18K per month in India is HUGE and yes something things are equally expensive as other developed countries (e.g. buying an apartment in crazy expensive cities like Mumbai or Bangalore) but overall, the cost of living is much lower than western countries on average.

Source: An Indian-American (I don't like hyphens but in this case relevant for context) who frequently visits India and has business there as well.

Re: undefined

#84

Post by eldritch_4ier » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:50 PM UTC

Existenceblinks wrote: post #76

mddanishyusuf wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I actually love your answer, contrast to a lot of hassle myths. Build a useful thing, put it out there, of course they would come.

The actual reality is that starting a company is very complex, and for every “rule” there’s a very successful company that did the opposite.

If your takeaway from this is that “build it and they will come” is a good go to market strategy, you’d be terribly wrong in the vast majority of cases. It worked in this case because it was a solution to a painful, concrete problem and the product hunt audience happened to be the right customer suffering from that problem.

Re: undefined

#85

Post by rhacker » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:51 PM UTC

tppiotrowski wrote: post #15

I noticed MRR is the key measure reported by startups. I've seen some startups in really saturated markets have very high MRR and it made me wonder if they're just spending $.99 of every $1 on ads so really they do not make any profit but high revenue. Can you comment on profit vs revenue?

I typically only see MRR numbers for "one man startups" because you see the number and compare it to your salary and go - Shit I can do that. I could've done that. Damnit!

MRR is meaningless in larger startups because for all intents and purposes would be eaten by the salaries in two seconds, unless it's huge. At any point it becomes reported as annual revenue.

Re: undefined

#86

Post by moralestapia » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:53 PM UTC

Hey @mddanishyusuf!

Is there some contact info so one may get in touch?

I'm building something quite similar to tableapps, it would be nice to exchange ideas around that.

Re: undefined

#87

Post by draaglom » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:53 PM UTC

optymizer wrote: post #62

Congrats! On a related note, can someone on HN can educate me on why MRR is the primary metric? MRR doesn't tell you if the startup is profitable, which is presumably the goal - to make money. If your costs are $3M/month, an MRR of $100K sounds like a terrible deal. Wouldn't it make more sense to report profits?

As long as you believe you can acquire customers for some margin less than (you project) they will pay you across their lifetime as a customer, the rational choice to to maximise your money is to spend all the money you have (and more!) on acquiring more customers.

As a result, the majority of SaaS businesses aren't profitable, and people talk mostly about MRR.

Re: undefined

#88

Post by codegeek » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:54 PM UTC

71a54xd wrote: post #33

I'd literally rather just get two jobs at mid series B startups or one Faang job. I completely don't understand why grinding out 5yrs for $18k a month is even close to worth it.

2 reasons:

1. They want to do their own things, controlling their own time and not work for someone else

2. 18K/Mo in a developing country like India is huge. Assuming that's revenue and profits are say at least 50% (usually higher for SAAS but I am being conservative), that income puts you in top 10% at the minimum.

Re: undefined

#89

Post by baby » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:54 PM UTC

optymizer wrote: post #62

Congrats! On a related note, can someone on HN can educate me on why MRR is the primary metric? MRR doesn't tell you if the startup is profitable, which is presumably the goal - to make money. If your costs are $3M/month, an MRR of $100K sounds like a terrible deal. Wouldn't it make more sense to report profits?

for others like me who might not have known:

> Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the income that a company expects to receive in payments on a monthly basis. MRR is a critical revenue metric that helps subscription companies to understand their overall business health profitability by keeping a close eye on monthly cash flow.

Re: undefined

#90

Post by moralestapia » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

optymizer wrote: post #62

Congrats! On a related note, can someone on HN can educate me on why MRR is the primary metric? MRR doesn't tell you if the startup is profitable, which is presumably the goal - to make money. If your costs are $3M/month, an MRR of $100K sounds like a terrible deal. Wouldn't it make more sense to report profits?

One-person software shops usually have recurring costs close to zero, so MRR pretty much equals profit (minus taxes and whatever).

But yes, your argument stands for other kinds of startups.