Seriously?
For a hangover cure. The shit I can walk into half a dozen different convenience stores and whole foods and find half a dozen varieties by the front counter.
This person must have been a good PM.
A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
31–40 of 120 posts
Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
#32I hate that word "Staffer"
Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's rather inspiring. It shows you can swing for the fences without sacrificing much.
"[Swinging] for the fences" literally means to swing a baseball bat as hard as you can at where you think a baseball will be thrown[1]. You're far less likely to connect with the ball, but you will propel the ball much farther if you do manage to. Swinging for the fences is more apt for companies like Magic Leap, Groupon, Gilt, Pebble, etc. I'd characterize this guy's approach as being more like "Moneyball." [2] [1]…
This guy is the epitome of "that guy"
Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
#34Kudos to Tesla for not only being OK with this guy having a sidegig but also not trying to be a jerk in demanding a cut. I know that seems like status quo for companies not to demand control over what employees create outside of work, but seems like that line can be blurred when there's enough money involved. (edit: not just having a sidegig, but being able to launch and run his startup for ~1 year while employed at…
Man, don't be giving a corporation kudos for NOT doing shit they OUGHT NOT do in the first place.
shit they probably can't legally do in California anyway.
Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
"[Swinging] for the fences" literally means to swing a baseball bat as hard as you can at where you think a baseball will be thrown[1]. You're far less likely to connect with the ball, but you will propel the ball much farther if you do manage to. Swinging for the fences is more apt for companies like Magic Leap, Groupon, Gilt, Pebble, etc. I'd characterize this guy's approach as being more like "Moneyball." [2] [1]…
This guy is the epitome of "that guy"
[deleted]
Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Both of those things make a company worth more than $1 million. It's only wealth on paper, but it's legitimate to call a person a millionaire who owns a company who's done one of those.
I would disagree, and I believe that others would as well. A 'millionaire' in my mind is someone with liquid assets of at least one million dollars. The company isn't worth more than $1 million until someone else exchanges shares or money for it for over a million dollars. VC funding does not make someone a millionaire, except in rare cases where founders are allowed to sell shares to 'take money off the table'. VC m…
That's why taking vc money is not alway the best option. In many cases it forces you into decisions that may not be best in the long or short term.
Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
#37Seems like this guy hedged his bets every step of the way: - kept his day job while working on startup - did fake campaign on FB to gauge demand - got friends to try product - croudfunded the first batch This is a really risk averse guy who is making it big. Sort of the opposite of the bombastic risk-it-all founder we often see in SV hero stories.
To me, being able to play again is vital if you're going to play a high-risk game.
Eg. making 101 100:1 bets makes way more sense than risking everything on a single victory-or-bust gamble.
Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
#38Kudos to Tesla for not only being OK with this guy having a sidegig but also not trying to be a jerk in demanding a cut. I know that seems like status quo for companies not to demand control over what employees create outside of work, but seems like that line can be blurred when there's enough money involved. (edit: not just having a sidegig, but being able to launch and run his startup for ~1 year while employed at…
"Kudos to Tesla for not only being OK with this guy having a sidegig, but also not trying to be a jerk in demanding a cut. "
Please don't give them kudos. This has to be normal behavior. Being employed by a company doesn't mean being owned by them.
Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
#39This is one of my most favourite "start up" stories ever. It almost feels like the "millennial" way of starting any business nowadays. Quitting your day-job, sitting in a co-op space, risking thousands of personal funds, building, and building, and building, and building, and then finally releasing something with no real idea of it's potential is an almost sure-fire way of failing, and risking your well being at the…
Back in the day we just called this "starting a small business". It was the normal way of doing things before VCs were willing to piss away millions on mostly dumb ideas.
Re: A Former Tesla Staffer Became an Internet Millionaire in His Spare Time
#40Kudos to Tesla for not only being OK with this guy having a sidegig but also not trying to be a jerk in demanding a cut. I know that seems like status quo for companies not to demand control over what employees create outside of work, but seems like that line can be blurred when there's enough money involved. (edit: not just having a sidegig, but being able to launch and run his startup for ~1 year while employed at…
Man, don't be giving a corporation kudos for NOT doing shit they OUGHT NOT do in the first place.
Why not? Tesla is seen as a company with ambitious grandiose plans. It's a common Silicon Valley cliché for startups and companies to claim they're changing the world. Tesla is one of the few companies that can legitimately claim an important mission. With all the stories (Tesla or otherwise) about SV companies overworking their employees in the name of holy missions, it's nice to see an example of what looks like an amicable parting.
According to the article, Lee was able to launch and his own startup for a year, while still working full time as a product manager at Tesla. Would most startup or startup-like (trying to reach stable profit) companies be OK with that?