221–230 of 247 posts
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> It just sounds like he was just fine leaving his family for a job. Or... maybe he needs income to exist.
He doesnt provide any context for that if so and if you look around the site, doesn't seem like the case at all. More like he just decided on the phone something interested him enough to bounce indefinitely.
Author - I don't think you learned the correct lessons here. The most important thing is that you weren't "ripped off" - you were taken advantage of. Ripped off is when you buy a TV that's supposed to work and it doesn't. Or you just don't get one. You were taken advantage of - which requires your active consent. Nobody made you do all these things for them on faith. You could have left after a few days. You could ha…
I’ve worked on these terms or similar ones on every job I’ve ever done, for 20 years. They’re the norm. How do I know? I’ve been in this industry for 20 years. I’ve been on both sides of freelance contracts in that time. I moderate a discord of 8000 of my peers. I speak at industry events. We compare notes. We all work ahead of payment, and honestly nothing about the fact that this was a rescue job was particularly o…
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Back in 2015 I worked for a startup. I turned down a job at a more stable company because this startup had me doing Erlang and I really wanted to work with that. The job worked fine for about six months, and then one week my paycheck (which usually was on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month) wasn't in my bank account. I go the CEO of the company and mention this and he said something like "Oh yeah, something…
During my MBA we were taught about the FedEx founding story [0]. The founder of FedEx got low on cash. So he took all the remaining cash (including what he owed in payroll) to Vegas and gambled it. And won, and paid his staff, and the rest is history. We were taught that this was a great example of "entrepreneurial hustle". I was horrified. How many founders copied this lesson? How many employees couldn't pay their m…
The FedEx founder got lucky. The countless others who tried a similar gamble didn't and unfortunately their story doesn't seem to be taught because "desperate founder gambled the employees salary and lost" just doesn't have the same ring.
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Back in 2015 I worked for a startup. I turned down a job at a more stable company because this startup had me doing Erlang and I really wanted to work with that. The job worked fine for about six months, and then one week my paycheck (which usually was on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month) wasn't in my bank account. I go the CEO of the company and mention this and he said something like "Oh yeah, something…
Is this that American thing, where kids move to a different city at 18 and only visit their parents once a year for Thanksgiving?
I'm in pretty much daily contact with my parents and siblings. They always know what I'm up to, what my financial situation is, and they would be my first contact in case of any difficulties.
We’ve also learned this lesson the hard way. These are now the clauses we require in every project we do: - Payment is due X days after receipt of invoice, or immediately after the consultant has addressed any quality issues, whichever is sooner - Late payment shall incur interest at 8% above the BoE base rate and a late fee of 100 GBP as per the UK Late Payment Legislation. Partial payments on invoices shall apply t…
Oh and another lesson! Ensuring that each deliverable invoice is small enough that it falls under the simplified claims procedure (in the UK it’s 10,000 pounds) greatly simplifies collection. It costs something like 80 quid to file for recovery in court and in our experience invoices are immediately paid up when a “Letter before action” is sent. You burn the relationship, but arguably you probably don’t want it anywa…
In atheist cultures with no concept of sin, people see obeying contracts as being sheep, it is in fact looked down upon. People will pay you only when they need something else from you, so solution is to frame a contract in a way they won't be able to make do without your final deliverable - and assume that final deliverable will never be paid, just price that in. It's not a pleasure to work like this, but it can be…
Individual businesses may be different, of course.
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Which they? The contractor, the project owners, etc? And is who they are relevant to the lesson (stealing time/effort is easy to get away with, you need to protect yourself from that)?
Article contains this: > I’ll happily tell you who they are - get in touch
In any case, if they don't want to publish the name on their own web page, they'll not want to publicly post it as a reply on HN either…
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What if you’re a cofounder or founding engineer and the company hasn’t raised yet?
Unlike in the article where a contractor was promised payment and no payment was made, the cofounder here knows already that the company can’t pay until they raise funds, and has planned for this accordingly, by living off of personal savings or contract jobs. They also understand the risk they’ve taken on and are comfortable trading their time for possibly zero returns.
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My total lifetime "ate it" figure is only $2k, and even that one the client kind of eventually offered to pay, but I just let it be because I wanted to put as much distance between myself and them for other reasons.
Best advice in the article? "Trust your gut". If something feels vaguely off, I walk away immediately. I can see those non-paying incubators coming a mile away. Biggest indicator beyond gut: do they have existing contractors who seem happy? Ask them pointblank if they're getting paid. Easy as that. And of course, if they are paying you, but then stop paying you, or delay paying you, then stop work immediately.
Agree, YC founders are the worst type of person.