Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many cities expect even sole proprietors to obtain business licenses from them.
Only if you work or have property in those cities.
Yes, of course. I should've been clearer.
My New $156 Startup
41–50 of 62 posts
Re: My New $156 Startup
#42As someone who is currently going through setting up a company, a list of words I didn't read in that article include: incorporation, insurance, attorney, EIN. I can assure you these costs alone are well above $156. I don't know of a single state that looks kindly on un-registered businesses. I'm about to spend my Friday night (and Saturday and Sunday) doing legal research so I don't have to pay my attorney to use th…
For a one person business, you don't need any of that stuff. A sole-proprietorship is a legal business.
Depending on where you are based, but in a lot of cases yes. Insurance is all about reducing financial risk, if you are willing to take that on yourself (and your customers are ok with it) then you don't need insurance.
Re: My New $156 Startup
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's an interesting post, but the copy is not very well edited overall. It's certainly part of what makes me question what happens with the quality of his projects beyond the initial sales.
Thanks for picking it up- the teacherpreneur new design went live last week. Appreciate the help
What's your teaching background, by the way?
Re: My New $156 Startup
#44As someone who is currently going through setting up a company, a list of words I didn't read in that article include: incorporation, insurance, attorney, EIN. I can assure you these costs alone are well above $156. I don't know of a single state that looks kindly on un-registered businesses. I'm about to spend my Friday night (and Saturday and Sunday) doing legal research so I don't have to pay my attorney to use th…
A sole proprietorship exists as soon as you say it does in many jurisdictions. That's the most common kind of business entity in the US. In my case I had to file for a DBA, which was a three field form plus a trifling amount of money to my local newspaper's classified section.
You can run a software business for many years before you need to formalize things, depending on what you're doing. I think I put off incorporation and insurance for about 7 years.
Re: My New $156 Startup
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right that 90% of the clients on oDesk are absolutely horrible, but so are most of the developers. There are some, however, who are genuinely just trying to find affordable talent in places where it's available. I know plenty of great developers in Russia and India making $40/hour as programmers for US companies.
I tried looking around on oDesk for contract work, but every time I clicked on a job and looked at the client's history they were paying less than $10 an hour on average. I couldn't find anything paying near $40 an hour.
Are you still looking for contract work? If so, email morgante@cafe.com.
Re: My New $156 Startup
#46To me it's strange that I see so many comments on HN about how technical skill isn't the most important thing: business sense, life experience, communications skills, etc. count for more.
But when someone with no technical skill creates a product by outsourcing the technical side, suddenly the comments are all negative.
Re: My New $156 Startup
#47To me it's strange that I see so many comments on HN about how technical skill isn't the most important thing: business sense, life experience, communications skills, etc. count for more. But when someone with no technical skill creates a product by outsourcing the technical side, suddenly the comments are all negative.
My critique of the model is more that outsourcing will get expensive quickly. The founder of this product 120+ schools to support with 30k. Many of these schools are expecting lifetime support: they paid a one time $250 fee. It's not clear what the legal relationship is between the service provider and the schools either, which may be a problem.
So my critique has nothing to do with technical skill, it's more that getting 'profitable' quickly without any consideration of the potential long term debt can be a bad business decision.
In my view, these were shaky business decisions (to outsource development, cutting legal corners w schools, one time fees), rather than technical ones, if that makes sense. There are times when outsourcing is the right call, in the context of this particular business I'm not convinced.
Ps. The adequate technical skill to execute is kinda assumed if you're founding a tech startup. If it's just building a product without the expectation of scaling it you can maybe get with outsourcing. This might be why there's more of a discussion on HN about the business side - this is the area that most of the audience here need to develop.
I remember reading that YC was founded in the first place with a hypothesis that teaching tech founders the nontech skills (eg. business/communication skills) is far, far more effective than vice versa. Seems it was right.
Re: My New $156 Startup
#48As someone who is currently going through setting up a company, a list of words I didn't read in that article include: incorporation, insurance, attorney, EIN. I can assure you these costs alone are well above $156. I don't know of a single state that looks kindly on un-registered businesses. I'm about to spend my Friday night (and Saturday and Sunday) doing legal research so I don't have to pay my attorney to use th…
You don't have to form a corporation to start a business, and you don't need an attorney, EIN or insurance. Millions of businesses operate in the US as non-incorporated entities (eg sole proprietorships or partnerships).
In addition, an LLC is incredibly easy with regard to paperwork and effort compared to a corporation, and gives the owner(s) limited liability as well as tax advantages (vs sole proprietorships or partnerships).
Re: My New $156 Startup
#49Congrats on the successful launch.
As a developer, my initial gut reaction is "damn biz guys devaluing what I do".
But creating a product or business requires far more than simply having technical skills (or essentially none in your case, as all the technical components were outsourced) and proving a market exists and figuring out how to satisfy that market are an incredibly important part of building something that is more than just a bit of tech.
Re: My New $156 Startup
#50To me it's strange that I see so many comments on HN about how technical skill isn't the most important thing: business sense, life experience, communications skills, etc. count for more. But when someone with no technical skill creates a product by outsourcing the technical side, suddenly the comments are all negative.
My critique of the model is more that outsourcing will get expensive quickly. The founder of this product 120+ schools to support with 30k. Many of these schools are expecting lifetime support: they paid a one time $250 fee. It's not clear what the legal relationship is between the service provider and the schools either, which may be a problem. So my critique has nothing to do with technical skill, it's more that ge…
Hi - you've assumed this is not being done by s full legal entity that my company is - the software also has a global base with customers all over the planet - 120 schools is really not the case. You've also assumed I don't have full time staff now to manage the project