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I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

mtlynch.io

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Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#271

Post by nickjj »

HeyTomesei wrote: post #268
nickjj wrote: post #39

You know it must have been stressful when you were compelled to list your desserts in order. Now that we're almost in June, does it feel like the deal happened a million years ago? I know when stressful things happen and time passes, it always feels like it was so long ago even when it was only a month or 2 back. It was a pleasure having you on a few years ago in the Running in Production podcast: https://runninginpr…

I loved your podcasts, Nick - as a tech recruiter with zero tech background, you really helped me better grasp what my clients/candidates actually do. Any plans to get back into it?

Hi, thank you.

Currently no plans but I do plan to keep the site up in case things change in the future.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#272

Post by nickjj »

amanzi wrote: post #210
nickjj wrote: post #39

You know it must have been stressful when you were compelled to list your desserts in order. Now that we're almost in June, does it feel like the deal happened a million years ago? I know when stressful things happen and time passes, it always feels like it was so long ago even when it was only a month or 2 back. It was a pleasure having you on a few years ago in the Running in Production podcast: https://runninginpr…

I loved your Running in Production podcast. Any chance of a return in the future?

Thanks a lot. Realistically as things currently stand, probably not but if something pops up in a way that changes things to where it makes sense then absolutely. The conversations were the best part and I still want to do that.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#273

Post by sgraz »

mtlynch wrote: post #2

Author here. I'm happy to answer any questions about this post, the sale process, or my time running TinyPilot.

No questions, just sharing that I was smiling like an idiot when I saw the wire transfer email screenshot. Maybe I felt emotionally invested since I remember reading your previous posts about the less-than-ideal design studio collaborations.

What a feeling! Congrats.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#274

Post by tiborsaas »

ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #75
tills13 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy hell the pessimism in this thread over a life-changing amount of money for 99% of people. > should have stayed at Google You should feel privileged that you've never been "stuck" at a job that you don't find personally interesting and stimulating. Wasting your life to see the number in your bank account increase.

Half a million isn't really that much.

You could start planning your FIRE with $500k.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#275

Post by bArray »

> As for the salary, $100k/year is roughly what a software developer makes fresh out of college in the US. And that’s without a 12-month commitment

Fresh out of collage? The average appears to be $100k [1], but this would include senior developers too. I think their sense of wealth is warped by Google...

[1] https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/us-software-developer-s...

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#276

Post by Etherlord87 »

lukan wrote: post #252
neycoda wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't walk away with nothing. All of the documents they made and experience they got from the first proposal can be used for other proposals. I hate how people see all of that effort as wasted just because they didn't get they want from it. They're taking for granted all of things they gained from it which will be used in the future (at the very minimum, education and experience, which could be monetized).

Do you want to work for free for me? It won't be for nothing, you will be paid with experience!

Imagine I say my house burned down and I lost everything, and someone (here: neycoda) points out I haven't lost everything because I still own the land underneath the house. Pedantic? Maybe, but still correct. At no point would neycoda state it wasn't a negative outcome, just that "left with nothing" was not true. So in the analogy, it doesn't make sense to ask him if he would like you to put his house on fire... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#277

Post by brushfoot »

xyst wrote: post #35

Wild. I vaguely remember this founder spending an obscene amount of money on some boutique firm to give homepage a small update. Seems he exited the Google grind about 6 years ago. I guess salaries were between $180-250K during that time frame. Google grinder for 6 years: $1,080,000-$1,500,000 Entrepreneur: “$920k over four years (with sale)”, but doesn’t include the 2 bombs he had prior to successful exit. (None of…

> Seems like he took an L

Your numbers come out to $250K/year at Google and $230K/year as an entrepreneur. That's a small price to pay for this kind of real-world education.

There's no guarantee his next business will be successful -- but there's no guarantee that those kinds of Google positions are going to keep existing, either.

On the other hand, there's also the chance that his next business could be massively more successful because of lessons learned, and open the way to much higher amounts than he could have been earning at Google were he still there.

Overall, I think it was a massive win for him. And it may have been more beneficial to society than the work he was doing at Google.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#278

Post by ryandrake »

bArray wrote: post #275

> As for the salary, $100k/year is roughly what a software developer makes fresh out of college in the US. And that’s without a 12-month commitment Fresh out of collage ? The average appears to be $100k [1], but this would include senior developers too. I think their sense of wealth is warped by Google... [1] https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/us-software-developer-s...

You get that kind of exaggeration here on HN all the time when the topic of salary comes up. People will casually say things like "Oh, most tech employees make $500K/year and drive Ferraris." or "Developers can easily make seven figures!" when they're actually just talking about a few specific senior FAANG developers they know who live exactly in the Bay Area and got their equity grants at just the right time...

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#279

Post by khaki54 »

Michael, initially I thought it was kind of a naive idea that wouldn't take off because there are so many tried and true and enterprise class alternatives. They are pretty clunky though.

The immense care and diligence you have put into setting this up means the new buyers will have a great launching point with few surprises.

Suffice to say, I would have liked to buy this thing for $600k, but I guess you dropped off my radar for the past year and I didn't realize it was up for sale.

Congrats!

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#280

Post by khaki54 »

xyst wrote: post #35

Wild. I vaguely remember this founder spending an obscene amount of money on some boutique firm to give homepage a small update. Seems he exited the Google grind about 6 years ago. I guess salaries were between $180-250K during that time frame. Google grinder for 6 years: $1,080,000-$1,500,000 Entrepreneur: “$920k over four years (with sale)”, but doesn’t include the 2 bombs he had prior to successful exit. (None of…

This was basically a sponsored super MBA with 250k annual stipend.
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