221–230 of 239 posts
Thats where you failed. You cover all that ground while he worries about.. design? Thats not going to get you to where you need to be. Sorry.
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A barber shop is a new, fledgling business, but it is not a startup. PG wrote an essay on this - you should read it.
And why isn't a barber shop a startup? Great Clips and Super Cuts were once new, fledgling businesses. Not charging money, taking VC investment, joining an incubator, and creating a stupid name that ends in "fy" or "ly" a startup does not make. BTW, I've read the essay. I like most of what he writes, but I have a fundamental disagreement on this one and just because it comes from the hands of PG does not make it gosp…
Elon Musk put his last $3 million into Tesla to make payroll a few years ago.
That guy has balls of steel and fame to fall back on. While I think Elon is a man to be admired I wouldn't recommend copying all his decisions.
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Screw you dude. For someone with over 1k karma and an almost 3 year old account, you should know better than this. This is a community meant for us, hackers and entrepreneurs, to help and support each other out. Posting shit like this when a guy is exposing his deepest anxieties to the world and reaching out for help should make you ashamed.
It's the reality of the situation. Unemployed men or men who earn less than their wives are more likely to be divorced. He needs to manage the situation with his wife carefully. Don't show her that you are worried. Don't share your problems with her.
Isn't it far more likely to get a divorce if you are refusing to discuss problems with her? Holy hell. If this is what your relationships are like, you might want to look for different partners.
Thanks for making me appreciate my wife that much more.
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Founders are all very well aware, employees still in the dark. No raise potential as metrics are nowhere near where they should be. Solid IP and team that might make for a good acquisition, provided investors will OK it (they've rejected one some time ago)
shouldn't you give employees 30 days notice? or is the plan to just fire them when the money runs out? before they've had time to look for another job...
If you give employees 30 day notice, most will look for other jobs and leave. You will then have no hopes in turning the company around.
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It's the reality of the situation. Unemployed men or men who earn less than their wives are more likely to be divorced. He needs to manage the situation with his wife carefully. Don't show her that you are worried. Don't share your problems with her.
That's so cynical that it looks sarcastic. Isn't it far more likely to get a divorce if you are refusing to discuss problems with her? Holy hell. If this is what your relationships are like, you might want to look for different partners. Thanks for making me appreciate my wife that much more.
http://healthland.time.com/2011/07/11/unemployed-men-are-mor...
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/women_divorce_cur_SfyE...
I know there are women out there who would not dump their husband like this. One of my friends who has been with his wife since they were in high school went through a very tough 5 years in his business while trying to make it. He lost hundreds of thousands of dollars which he never made back. His wife stuck by him the whole time and even helped him out. They just had their first child.
You are right that the quality of partner is what matters the most. I suspect HNers on average choose a more morally upright class of women, however, I would still counsel anyone to be cautious about appearing worried to their wives.
Me though... I like firecrackers. Will never marry.
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In this day and age, a million bucks is not even close to an economic freedom. @webwright has a good post on what he calls "Fuck you money", the amount you'd need to retire rich. Well worth the read. http://www.tonywright.com/2010/no-you-cant-retire-rich-at-30...
Sure it is. You just have to have more reasonable expectations. A million bucks can easily generate 30-50k a year in dividends, and without a mortgage, that is enough to live a comfortable lifestyle. You can't go on permanent vacation, but you can live and work on whatever you want to without needing a job. 200k is a silly number to use in this calculation. Most studies show that "happiness" stops having big returns…
You would have to purchase a house, it should be in a safe area with a good school district, so that's probably 200K? (I don't know what prices would be far away from the coasts)
So now you have 800K generating dividends for you, plus you have to save every year to be able to cover your kids college tuition since you can't get any need based money due to your nest egg. Even assuming you somehow do that on 50K/year (or your kids get merit scholarships), in 30 years (by the time you are 60) your 50K has the purchasing power of ~25K.
I'm going to say this knowing that I may get down voted to heck. And I don't mean it as a "told you so" to the OP, but rather hopefully some cautionary advice for would-be founders. I have come to the opinion that if you are bootstrapping, you have no business calling your company a startup. You are building a small business. And there is nothing shameful about this. You are among solid companions with your local plu…
I do disagree that startup has to be growth centered. By virtue of software for which the distribution costs are practically 0; most software companies have potential for a significant growth (unless they are targeting a very narrow audience). It seems that the growth would come naturally once you have a product of high quality (with sufficient exposure/marketing). Hence shouldn't the primary focus of startups be on producing a product of high quality?
"This week, I need to speak to the other founder and fire our first employee before he leaves on a planned vacation. He’s a good developer, but I won’t fucking make payroll next week if I don’t clear him and his severance out of the company." Is it wrong that I feel worse for this employee than for the author? He's looking forward to a (probably well-earned) vacation, and he's about to be forced into a job hunt inste…
You should. I feel fucking shitty about this.
That means NOT stringing people along. Sit down and figure out whether you're going to be able to keep people employed at 100% of their current pay and benefits. If you know you can't, then the biggest favor you can do for them is to lay them off quickly so they can start looking for a new job immediately.
If you can make some calls to get them leads at other places that's great, but the most helpful thing you can do for them is to let them go as soon as you know that they have no future at your company.
I've done firing and layoffs and I know it's hard. Delaying it makes it all much worse, for you and the departing employees.