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

Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

deepsouthventures.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 168 posts

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#121

Post by senordevnyc »

deadbabe wrote: post #84
thr0w wrote: post #77

> I can’t trust them anymore; I gotta figure out a way to generate revenue myself; from my own business; that I control. Online preferably. This was it for me. Pouring your whole self into your work, only to be laid off, fired, or skipped for promotion is soul shattering. $400k ARR solo. I'll never work for anyone again, I'll never feel compelled to be a yes man again, I'll never fake a smile for a drooling idiot of…

Never say never.

For real. I made $400k+ multiple years working for myself in a business that was a mix of product and services. But then divorce, business changes, and my own values shifting pushed me to get a tech job where I made even more, working less, with less stress. It was a great move, though I had to let go of some of my ego to do it.

That said, after about five years of that, I'm ready to get back to working for myself.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#122

Post by aksss »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #94
no_wizard wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't mean Universal Healthcare wouldn't be a net win for entrepreneurship. We should unlock all barriers to entry that we possibly can

It's a net win for everyone except the middlemen.

I think to have an honest conversation about universal healthcare is to admit that it would cause health care rationing. Costs would be tighter across the board, and the best experiences of health care services enjoyed with (many) corporate plans would degrade, relatively speaking (unless supplemental private insurance continues). Doctors would probably make less profit, not just insurers.

I think it's okay to talk honestly about that. There's a LOT of waste and purely indulgent service in the current system. And as a person striking out on a business venture, I don't need concierge health services. I need a health safety net.

I think it hurts the conversation about UHC when that's waved away - telling people that they'll be bringing the best of low deductible in-network, gratuitously provided services to everyone.

UHC isn't about bringing great service to everyone, it's about bringing a higher level of minimal coverage to everyone.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#123

Post by eightturn »

rodolphoarruda wrote: post #44
eightturn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(author here)... I honestly was scared of it first, as I thought if I edited the code, I'd accidentally change/update the other persons website...

I saw in your "Moi" page a great emphasis on the domain name. I agree with you. I think domain names are the crystallization of an idea, a message. On the other hand, I see a lot of people from startup bubbles in X making fun of domain registration, suggesting that it is a "low bar" activity and doesn't represent any effort toward building a product. I disagree with this point of view. To me, the name is bound to the…

great .com domain names were the cheat-code I was blindly searching for. The unfair advantage they present allowed me to compete head-to-head with larger entities. I still play in these waters.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#124

Post by Simon_ORourke »

I tried going solo out in Berlin after a few years working for a couple of the biggest douchebags you could imagine. Same idea - I didn't like having to answer to a douchebag every day, and didn't worry myself about getting FAANG money, so I tried a B2B start-up that tried to automate some compliance issues that most companies out in Germany face. Didn't get the product market fit right, but learned enough to get me in front of a FAANG-adjacent company who had an opening and that was that.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#125

Post by mrsilencedogood »

dkobia wrote: post #32

I've often heard the narrative from hiring managers over the years that a prospect who's been laid off probably doesn't make a good hire, especially if they've been laid off multiple times. In this wonderfully written and inspiring piece, perhaps we should consider that the real issue isn't the individual's capability but rather that their potential has been misdirected or they haven't been in environments that recog…

"often heard the narrative from hiring managers over the years that a prospect who's been laid off probably doesn't make a good hire"

While i'm unsurprised to hear that such a sociopathic and non-scientific narrative exists from hiring managers, I'm curious how they find out whether a departure was a layoff. For big companies, sure, you can probably tell that if someone left various tech darlings in late 2022 that it was probably a layoff. But like outside of that, how the heck do you know? Are you googling "$coname layoffs $year" for every entry on a resume you're screening or something? Or are you literally just asking them "tell me why you left each job" and people are for some reason answering honestly?

This just seems really hard to actually pin down unless employees are volunteering the information. Even if you did leave right on a publicly-known layoff date, it seems pretty easy to just explain that "uh yeah they were doing so poorly they laid off X% of people, I left for greener pastures". Or that general sentiment but passed through 1 or 2 layers of word-smithing.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#126

Post by JohnAaronNelson »

aftbit wrote: post #97
grecy wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but also good health insurance. I'm always amazed how blatantly clear it is that having health insurance tied to employment specifically discourages this kind of entrepreneurship, and the ability to "strike out on your own". Literally handcuffs keeping people at their jobs.

Alright here are three health care reforms that we could implement without going all the way to Universal Health Care: 1. Anyone who pays cash for a procedure should pay a price that is no more than the lowest price that any insurance company has negotiated for the same service. 2. Anyone who buys a health care plan from the marketplace should get a price that is no more than 10% higher than the cheapest negotiated p…

It’s not as easy in reality as theory.

1) Services are often unique per patient. Even for patients with the same ICD-10 codes, the quality of service will vary. Hospitals cost different amounts to run. If you always peg the price to the lowest, it will be a race to the bottom for quality of service.

2) Patients are unique, with different health profiles, with different preferences for paying. Markets are different. Some markets only have one insurance payer.

3) Healthcare is already tax deductible

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#127

Post by brink »

heyoni wrote: post #101
aftbit wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alright here are three health care reforms that we could implement without going all the way to Universal Health Care: 1. Anyone who pays cash for a procedure should pay a price that is no more than the lowest price that any insurance company has negotiated for the same service. 2. Anyone who buys a health care plan from the marketplace should get a price that is no more than 10% higher than the cheapest negotiated p…

Is that universal healthcare with extra steps? Almost, but on a serious note, why not go all the way with universality?

Because universal healthcare is not the best solution, as is becoming increasingly evident in Canada and the UK.

We need to fix the price gouging in the medical system by incentivizing competition. With the way things are currently set up in the US, the hospitals are essentially written a blank check any time a patient steps foot on their premises. If we bring competition between the hospitals with price transparency, the prices will fall dramatically.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#128

Post by yardie »

eightturn wrote: post #76
glitchc wrote: post #73

I'm still stuck on how someone makes it through a history degree without enjoying reading.

when my senior year rolled around, I still didn't know what my major was going to be. I visited a guidance counselor, and she viewed all the classes I had inadvertently taken, and I'd fulfilled 3/4 of a History degree (a Southern History degree, no less - they offer it at my alma, Ole Miss). So I just went with that and read a few more William Faulkner novels : )

I went from an EE major to Aerospace. Realized I wasn't going to make it. At the same time the market for aerospace graduates was collapsing. But I did have enough math and programming credits to graduate with a CS degree. And dumped those aerospace credits into an Astronomy minor. Sometimes the degree picks you.

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#129

Post by johnkpaul »

JohnAaronNelson wrote: post #126
aftbit wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alright here are three health care reforms that we could implement without going all the way to Universal Health Care: 1. Anyone who pays cash for a procedure should pay a price that is no more than the lowest price that any insurance company has negotiated for the same service. 2. Anyone who buys a health care plan from the marketplace should get a price that is no more than 10% higher than the cheapest negotiated p…

It’s not as easy in reality as theory. 1) Services are often unique per patient. Even for patients with the same ICD-10 codes, the quality of service will vary. Hospitals cost different amounts to run. If you always peg the price to the lowest, it will be a race to the bottom for quality of service. 2) Patients are unique, with different health profiles, with different preferences for paying. Markets are different. S…

Regarding #3, do you mean in the United States? That's not generally true. Your health insurance premiums, under normal employer plans, are not tax deductible, but they are paid pre-tax.

Additional out of pocket healthcare expenditure is only deductible if you itemize your deductions and you're only allowed to deduct medical expenditures in excess of 7.5% of your income (AGI to be technical).

Re: Being laid off and unplanned entrepreneurship

#130

Post by jmstfv »

nudpiedo wrote: post #5

this is highly dated... 2004-2008, the opportunities were others than today's

as someone who's living off of the tiny business income, there are plenty of opportunities to be found on the internets. some of these opportunities have a shorter shelf life than others, and that's okay; you can still make a killing before moving on to the next wave.

you probably won't start ranking as easily as you could have 10 or 20 years ago, and there is lots of competition these days — that's true.

Post reply on HN