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Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

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Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#81

Post by skmurphy »

mochi wrote: post #63

Something that I haven't seen mentioned: deferred pay is a huge problem in startups. Essentially, the founders are asking you to take venture risk with your salary, but they're not compensating you for that risk (I'm assuming they're not paying you 30% interest on that deferred amount.) Letting them defer your pay actually encourages them to wait as long as possible before raising a new round of funding, because the…

This is really good advice, I think it understates the downside risk of deferred compensation.

The investors may balk at applying their funds to deferred compensation, asking the founders to re-spin the employment agreement to convert the deferred compensation to common (or options) prior to the investment, further diluting and deferring it.

Why would the founders do that? They would be faced with a choice of no funding or new funding applied to salaries going forward.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#82

Post by skmurphy »

indigoviolet wrote: post #40

Another option is to interview at some companies with the understanding that you'd only be available after, say, March. What are your skills? (I can try to see if people at my work are interested).

Interview and get the offer, then you can make a decision about whether to accept.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#83

Post by catch23 »

nostrademons wrote: post #22
cperciva wrote: post #13

I'm worried about that 1-in-20 (?) chance that we don't manage to line up funding in time You should be worried -- and if I were you I'd re-evaluate your odds. My guess is that a startup which would print money would still have more than a 1-in-20 chance of failing to get funding at the moment. Assuming you definitely want to continue with this startup (and think about that carefully -- sometimes there's a reason why…

I'd second this. If the company founders are not a.) In YC b.) best buddies with venture capitalists or c.) have previously started & exited from a startup for multimillions, I wouldn't count on them having any chance of getting funded. And even then, their odds aren't that good.

Hey now... I happen to work for a company that was very recently funded, whose founders are not in YC, or best buddies with any VCs, and they didn't have previous exits. There's actually quite a few out there... if you create good value and get noticed, then you'll likely be funded too. Let me add that the funding was in the multi-millions, not a small amount of change. However, I'm not able to say which company yet because they don't want to announce it yet, it's very recent...

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#84

Post by Tichy »

recession wrote: post #77
Tichy wrote: post #54

Finding contract work is not so much work, especially if you are willing to code in Java. Personally I dread the day when I will have to do so again, but it is better as starving. Plus, 3 to 4 months can pay for the whole year. Just check the typical sites, I had good experiences with jobserve.co.uk (they don't only cover the UK - but I am in Europe/Germany). iPhone contracting seems to be quite popular atm, too. If…

Can you use Clojure for the Java work? I'd only do Java projects if I could use Clojure as often as humanly possible.

In general I would say no, but you can always get lucky and hit on a "progressive" Java project.

I totally feel with you, but seriously, Java is not so bad that I would rather starve or freeze to death than code in Java.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#85

Post by catch23 »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #68
rgrieselhuber wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that bad. I think we flew for about $80 round trip. There's always the trains too. :-)

$80 is indeed great but the train is much more exciting ;-)

Why not try India instead? The national language is English so it should be of little problem, plus everything there is super cheap. Buy a bicycle for $10 brand new and there's your transportation.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#86

Post by eru »

vaksel wrote: post #10

cut your living expenses...have a car? sell it for a beater. Have high rent? Move to Bronx or Brooklyn or Queens or Jersey City(if your work is close to penn station). Or if your parents live locally, move in with them(I did this). Switch to a ramen diet....stop going out, stop buying shit. Stretch every penny. You won't believe how little you can live on, if you cut out all the bullshit. Start working on your contac…

Oatmeal is also cheap and perhaps more healthy than ramen.

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#87

Post by eru »

sown wrote: post #56
sh1mmer wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to know where to go, what to buy, and what to cook. I've been a vegan for a number of years now and I could live off $60/mo if I wanted to. The main point is convenience. If you don't want the effort of preparing food then it costs a lot more. Simple staples like lentals, rice, etc supplemented with vegetables is a crazy cheap way to eat. In SF districts like the mission it's easy to get cheap fresh fruit an…

Please, tell me some of your secrets. I'm interested in cheap living/eating. :)

Oatmeal!

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#88

Post by run4yourlives »

terpua wrote: post #36
ellyagg wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd recommend sticking with ramen. There's zero chance that fruit is cheaper anywhere on a cost per calorie basis, ramen is easier to find everywhere, ramen is pretty tasty and you can take more calories of ramen before you want to throw up, you can take more calories of ramen before you have diarrhea, ramen stores compactly and easily, ramen doesn't go bad, and the health benefits of fruit and vegetables are greatly…

ramen + exercise > fruits/veggies + no exercise

Are you joking?

Re: Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?

#90

Post by terpua »

oakmac wrote: post #50
terpua wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ramen + exercise > fruits/veggies + no exercise

That is neither good nor accurate advice.

I was merely pointing out that if you have limited funds and running a startup, ramen and exercise is not a bad trade-off considering the costs of fruits/veggies are usually higher.
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