Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I sold Baremetrics

baremetrics.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 521 posts

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#311

Post by nxmnxm99 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #105
nxmnxm99 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you know, negotiate higher equity and stop bitching and moralizing when your payout isn’t high enough.

> Or, you know, negotiate higher equity and stop bitching and moralizing when your payout isn’t high enough. Seriously, what is your point here, besides acting like a jerk? I mean, I totally agree with you, but that's why I think this thread is important. It should be a lesson to potential startup employees about how extremely lopsided the risk/return considerations are, that most equity deals are complete shit at st…

This thread has nothing to do with a level headed discussion on the "fairness" of equity (which doesn't even make sense). I was responding to a comment calling Josh a dick for finally getting paid for a company he built that adds value to thousands of customer's lives, instead of giving it to highly replaceable early engineers.

Average software engineer gets compensated with 6 figure income for 7 years leading to a $70k cash payout. What a jerk that Josh is.

Rise, proletariat, rise.

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#312

Post by bingdig »

tinyhouse wrote: post #296

Wow, such a great read. I love people who are so open and honest. btw, how does tax work in the US for acquisitions? is the money he's getting is taxed the same as income?

He'll likely pay no federal taxes.

If the business is >1 year old, it's treated as capital gains. Since the company is >5 years old, he can likely take advantage of the Qualified Small Business Exemption up to $10m and pay no federal taxes.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/qsbs-qualified-small-bu...

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#313

Post by ticmasta »

dasudasu wrote: post #273
feral wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the VC was generous here. But there's some benefit to being generous. How many future founders will read that blog? If you were a founder, would it influence your choice of investor, to know if things don't work out, they will be magnanimous, rather than squeeze?

I doubt they knew he would make a blog post with this many details. But still, good will can get around through word of mouth.

He mentions his VCs have always been available and engaged, so I think it's reasonable that they knew he would be open and public about the deal; he always has in the past.

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#314

Post by tinyhouse »

bingdig wrote: post #312
tinyhouse wrote: post #296

Wow, such a great read. I love people who are so open and honest. btw, how does tax work in the US for acquisitions? is the money he's getting is taxed the same as income?

He'll likely pay no federal taxes. If the business is >1 year old, it's treated as capital gains. Since the company is >5 years old, he can likely take advantage of the Qualified Small Business Exemption up to $10m and pay no federal taxes. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/qsbs-qualified-small-bu...

Thanks for the info. That's pretty amazing.

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#315

Post by ianmobbs »

swyx wrote: post #221
Aperocky wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He did plan to retire so I don't think he would have needed them. It's more of a see you never type of situation.

if you read between the lines he is definitely going to start something again. some people cannot just sit on their hands.

If you read the actual lines, he said he's moving away from software and into the arts

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#316

Post by cj »

alex_c wrote: post #268

I was incredibly confused to read " Investors are writing off their $800,000 investment ". Sure, $800K isn't huge money for a fund, but it still seems... odd... to be so nonchalant about it? Then I checked General Catalyst, they manage multiple funds in the $500M - $1B range[1]. In that context the $800K really is a rounding error, around 0.1% of a single fund's size. It never ceases to amaze me how money stops being…

I imagine there must be a bit more to the story.

It's not common for investors to write off $800k out of good will (doesn't seem like something in the best interest of their LPs).

Edit:

> It’s a really exciting day here at Baremetrics! I’m stoked to announce that General Catalyst has invested $500,000 in Baremetrics, as part of a new fund they’ve created for businesses on Stripe.

Turns out there is more to the story.

Baremetrics got their cash from a fund specifically intended to promote companies integrating with Stripe. In other words, the goal of the fund was to promote Stripe moreso than to generate returns for LPs

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#317

Post by andygcook »

dasudasu wrote: post #273
feral wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the VC was generous here. But there's some benefit to being generous. How many future founders will read that blog? If you were a founder, would it influence your choice of investor, to know if things don't work out, they will be magnanimous, rather than squeeze?

I doubt they knew he would make a blog post with this many details. But still, good will can get around through word of mouth.

Baremetrics and Josh are known for their hyper transparent blog posts. They even publicly share all their revenue metrics. It’s highly likely the firms knew Josh would write a blog post about the exact exit terms.

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#318

Post by M2Ys4U »

dasil003 wrote: post #163
marcinzm wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don’t know when this dramatic shift happened to Americans to believe building a successful company is mostly luck, but it’s depressing. Because it's true? Studies (Gompers, et. al. (2009)) indicate that a second time entrepreneur has a 30% chance of success versus a 20% for a first time one. So there's some skill in it but it mostly comes down to luck. edit: And if you're arguing skill then clearly the skill of th…

Anyone who believes startup outcomes are mostly luck doesn’t have what it takes to be a successful founder—you need to have the belief that you can shape the outcome. The idea that we reduce outcomes to two buckets, success and failure and then flip a coin is reductive and belies the decisions and effort that lead every human endeavor to its own unique outcome. Keep in mind corporate projects fail all the time too, w…

>Anyone who believes startup outcomes are mostly luck doesn’t have what it takes to be a successful founder—you need to have the belief that you can shape the outcome.

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Startup outcomes are mostly luck, led by people who (have to?) believe that they aren't.

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#319

Post by ponker »

sequoia wrote: post #275
ponker wrote: post #261

Extremely gross that he pocketed $3.7m but asked his investors to walk away from their $800K, because he needed to meet his financial "goals." This is the flipside of all of the VC deals that completely fuck over the founders.

Do you imagine the VCs had to sell all their clothes and are now walking around wearing barrels held up by leather straps, before they retire for the evening to a cardboard box over a steam vent? You really think they had to cut back their Dom Perignon budget over this loss? Do you think they were "strongarmed" by this investor? There is what is for them a teeny tiny pie, and rather than demanding their small slice b…

If I stole your TV you likely wouldn’t be moving into a cardboard box either. Does that make it ok?

Re: I sold Baremetrics

#320

Post by ticmasta »

Sodman wrote: post #265
karimf wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevant tweet from the author: https://twitter.com/shpigford/status/1326162432989990912

I see this "HN is toxic" sentiment on tech twitter a lot, particularly from tech folks on twitter with a lot of followers and fans. My own experience on HN has been that folks may be more cynical than average, and sometimes lacking empathy, but I've found most arguments are at least made based on reality, facts and good faith. Those that aren't usually get downvoted and/or flagged pretty quickly. Meanwhile twitter th…

The HN community is full of incredibly intelligent but often young tech-centric people. I used to be part of the latter, but the reality is they lack a huge amount of context and experience. Being a talented developer-employee, even an early employee is jut not the same as being the founder / maker / starter. I sincerely doubt any of these people spent every single day of the past seven years worrying about the fate of their entire company; if you did, you're an incredible employee but you should have been running your own gig.
Post reply on HN