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

I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

mtlynch.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 329 posts

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#211

Post by pvo50555 »

mtlynch wrote: post #188
mountain_peak wrote: post #181

First off, congratulations on the sale - sounds like the right time and the right reasons for you, and you're 100% right on the seemingly 'backwards' nature of incentives and rewards when working for a large org. I was somewhat saddened when the logo changed (I suggested an alternate), but completely understand your rationale. As a side project, I'm currently working with a hardware founder (I'm primarily software) w…

Thanks! > Why do you think hardware doesn't generally have the same level of 'respect' as software? From what I can see, it should be held in much higher regard with a correspondingly higher level of compensation. Is it literally just the current ability for hardware to be reverse-engineered and undercut? Oh, my perception of hardware engineers is that they are held in similar regard to software developers. If they d…

My findings are the same - having spoken to a founder working in robotics, with a successful product and a sizable customer base, he has spent a very long time looking for funding.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#213

Post by DougN7 »

mtlynch wrote: post #71
2c2c wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

did you have a salary?

No, I didn't pay myself a salary. TinyPilot was a single-member LLC, so all the profits were pass-through income on my personal taxes. I share more about the finances in my annual review posts: https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-6/#tinypilot-became-2...

So your personal net income in 2022 was $10,447? That’s not enough to live on so I must be misreading it.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#214

Post by mtlynch »

amanzi wrote: post #210
nickjj wrote: post #39

You know it must have been stressful when you were compelled to list your desserts in order. Now that we're almost in June, does it feel like the deal happened a million years ago? I know when stressful things happen and time passes, it always feels like it was so long ago even when it was only a month or 2 back. It was a pleasure having you on a few years ago in the Running in Production podcast: https://runninginpr…

I loved your Running in Production podcast. Any chance of a return in the future?

I'd be happy to, but the podcast is on indefinite hiatus:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33945360

https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/taking-an-indefinite-break-fr...

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#215

Post by nmog »

elevatedastalt wrote: post #133
mtlynch wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. For me, the value of the broker was just someone to guide me through the whole process because I'd never done it before. It was good to have someone whose interests were pretty aligned with mine and who answered questions quickly and thoroughly without me having to pay by the hour. Another big part of the value was finding the buyer, as I probably couldn't do that on my own. I could have thrown a hail ma…

In what way were their interests aligned with yours? (this is not a snarky question. usually in real estate their interest is to make the deal happen asap, which doesn't align fully with your interests)

Presumably the broker has a fixed % commission, so the broker is definitely incentivized to seek a larger deal.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#216

Post by mtlynch »

elevatedastalt wrote: post #133
mtlynch wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. For me, the value of the broker was just someone to guide me through the whole process because I'd never done it before. It was good to have someone whose interests were pretty aligned with mine and who answered questions quickly and thoroughly without me having to pay by the hour. Another big part of the value was finding the buyer, as I probably couldn't do that on my own. I could have thrown a hail ma…

In what way were their interests aligned with yours? (this is not a snarky question. usually in real estate their interest is to make the deal happen asap, which doesn't align fully with your interests)

The deal happening ASAP was aligned with my interests in this case. I would have taken a lower sale price for a faster close.

But even aside from that, they make more money the larger the deal, so they work to get a good price. They also feel the pain if the deal falls through, so they have incentive to keep the deal alive and both sides happy.

The broker isn't perfectly aligned with me, but of everyone else involved like lawyers, accountants, and the buyer, the broker is by far the most aligned with my interests.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#217

Post by mtlynch »

DougN7 wrote: post #213
mtlynch wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I didn't pay myself a salary. TinyPilot was a single-member LLC, so all the profits were pass-through income on my personal taxes. I share more about the finances in my annual review posts: https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-6/#tinypilot-became-2...

So your personal net income in 2022 was $10,447? That’s not enough to live on so I must be misreading it.

My net income from TinyPilot was $10,447 in 2022, but I had other income from investments (mainly just boring index funds). But I live in Western Massachusetts and own my home (no mortgage), so my cost of living is fairly low.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#218

Post by [deleted] »

groby_b wrote: post #149
not-my-account wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of this can be learned by reading a couple books? I wonder how much higher profit he actually made compared to if one could self teach these skills.

About 80%. Which is great, if everything goes well. But if you're in the 20% that get to learn via failure, the cost is much higher to you. One of the core skills of being a founder is learning when to delegate.

[deleted]

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#219

Post by syntaxing »

Huge kudos to Michael on bringing us through his journey, including the selling. I remember starting reading his blog during the pandemic, the expensive website upgrade that got him lower sales is something I think about every once in a while. Huge congrats on the exit!

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#220

Post by Ahmd72 »

Been following your story from the beginning Michael, as around the time your tinypilot/KVM came out, I was having the same issues but never occurred to me or had the energy to tackle it. So glad you did and gave an insight to your journey, truly shows the amount of grit it requires to run a business and happy that you finally were able to close.
Post reply on HN