311–320 of 326 posts
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erm, isn't that assuming an income of $1,040,000 after tax based on a 40 hour work week?
I don't do consulting anymore, but I know plenty of consultants that gross over a million per year. Of course, business expenses, taxes, etc. bring their net income down considerably.
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Wonder what their answer to YC was when they were asked about that risk. "Apple buy hundreds of companies every year. Being bought by Apple is a potentially a valid exit strategy."
Most companies (the majority, I'd wager) who were Sherlocked were _not_ bought by Apple. Most companies basically got a "sucks to be you", that they found out along with everyone else at an Apple launch event where Apple had, sometimes shamelessly and brazenly, cloned their product. Sometimes, to add insult to injury, Apple would then remove that company's product from App Stores as "duplicating OS functionality".
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A subscription has to provide SOMETHING that I consider “ongoing” to be of value to me - 1Password syncing for example, or email - before I’ll consider it. Otherwise I’m looking for another option as I can’t be five and dimed to death by little subscriptions.
Do you consider "ongoing" to be synonymous with "server costs"? As someone trying to figure out a pricing model for a currently-local-only app, I'm genuinely curious.
As a software dev myself I'm fully aware that at least internet facing software must be maintained and that maintenance is actual work and should be paid.
On the other hand there are so many apps where a subscription feels flat out dumb, so here are some alternatives:
- tokens instead of subscriptions. Just don't make it another dumb whaling business or a toddler trap. E.g: local play free, networked game takes one token from one player. I'd be happy to not have to type payment details into my kids phones. You could even make a social thing out of it. Maybe I'll pay as much but 1. if I stop using it won't drain my bank account until I realize (making me feel stupid) 2. I don't lose access to my data.
- meaningful upgrades/add ons
- yearly releases
- monthly but with perpetual license for the last paid release (Jetbrains model)
Was there ever a time where YC only boosted deeply meaningful companies that were focused on uplifting humanity? I mean, no disrespect on yc, but it performs what it says on the tin. It's a business for businesses. Idk. I have tempered expectations moreso than some I guess. You've got a point, I just wonder how egregious is TOO much.
Is it possible for any investment arm to invest in endeavours to uplift humanity?
Also, you can always contribute to charitable organizations. It's not an investment in the traditional sense, but changing the world to be 0.01% nicer is still a good investment.
A Mac-only widget sounds like a profitable enterprise. Mac users still buy their software, like the old days.
Far more people use mobile and tablets than Macs. And, this tabletization of Macs with iOS compatibility is its own undoing. Apple may want to kill desktop computing for all but the very rich. A widget for all would be a larger addressable market.
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$10/month is not a cheap tool. I'm paying $90/year for Intellij Idea which is my main development tool. IMO that cost is extremely prohibitive for most users and it's definitely not a way to get plenty of people on board to monetize it later.
It is, however, a way to get a validated group of people who are price insensitive (compared to you, anyway) and willing to pay money for that specific sort of tool. Whether that's enough for a YC hail-mary to work is a them-problem.
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Even in the poorest of countries, $90/year is not too much for any serious (heck, even amateur) software developer. A coffee costs around $1 (in poor countries), that's $365/year and most people drink more than a cup per day. Now that's a tool to actually work, not increase your productivity (or mess with it). So $90 is pretty affordable.
Coffee does not cost 1 us dollar. The poorest countries survive on $500.00 to 2000 us a year. $90.00 isn't even affordable to everyone in the west.
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To put it into perspective, for someone making $200k+/yr (a lot of the HN audience), $10 is about 6min of their time/month (assuming a 40hr work week). Over a year it adds up to 72min of time. On the other hand, researching and trying out alternative free/cheaper tools might take hours. For a busy person making good money, $10/mo to make them more productive isn't a crazy ask IMO.
I think very few people buy things according to such a calculation.
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I'm comparing software to software. I want to buy honest software. If I'm paying $100/year for some program, then I'm expecting that another program with similar cost would require similar amount of engineering effort. I'm ready to pay $100/year for operating system. I'm ready to pay $100/year for sophisticated graphical editor like Photoshop. Paying similar price for simple software? Well, I would expect something l…
Size of the market is also important. Text editor for 30€ is a good business, everyone needs a text editor. Database client for 30€ is probably a little less profitable, not as many people need that. Client for a specific database like the protein data bank for 30€ -- well, you might sell two or three copies. All of these are probably a similar amount of work, but you can't sell them for the same price. That being sa…
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Sure, but saving a click or two when joining zoom meetings for mac users that don't use the native calendar app doesn't really scream "hair on fire"...
The Zoom client has already a built in calendar integration. Once connected, it will show you all upcoming meetings for the day including a button to join the call. It's quite convenient.