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Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

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Re: Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

#51

Post by jdminhbg »

ATS22 wrote: post #45
dumbfounder wrote: post #41

I have mixed feelings about this story. I applaud your resolve, and you have certainly had a tremendous amount of success that should be celebrated! But I can't help but think about the 9 founders of other companies that had the same resolve in the same situation, but things did not work out so well. All you other people thinking about going for broke need to be ready to hit bottom and build yourself back up afterwar…

totally agree with you. young people don't have to worry about stuff like managing their money because they are backed up. it's a shame grown ups with families can't find this backup in the community. once more capitalism shows it's ugly side.

> it's a shame grown ups with families can't find this backup in the community. once more capitalism shows it's ugly side.

OP had a three year old daughter with a life-threatening medical condition, so I'm not sure what exactly you're talking about.

Re: Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

#52

Post by austinl »

dumbfounder wrote: post #41

I have mixed feelings about this story. I applaud your resolve, and you have certainly had a tremendous amount of success that should be celebrated! But I can't help but think about the 9 founders of other companies that had the same resolve in the same situation, but things did not work out so well. All you other people thinking about going for broke need to be ready to hit bottom and build yourself back up afterwar…

I agree in the sense that the HN community cannot save a bad product. And sometimes it wouldn't even save a good product.

But I think the thanks here is for the community that was willing to give a new product a try, provide feedback, and help the founders build momentum towards what it ultimately became — especially when it was clear there was no traction on other sites. I think that's something to be thankful for, and shows that HN can be different from other communities in meaningful ways.

Re: Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

#53

Post by pembrook »

After spending 7+ years in the static site generator world, I recently started using Webflow exclusively for all marketing sites and landing pages and have been blown away with how much better it is than dealing with the complexities of the Static site + Headless CMS ecosystem. It seems you've actually delivered on the vision that dreamweaver was originally trying to create all those years ago.

I wouldn't be surprised if one day Webflow's market share on the Web gets to be Wordpress-sized.

With the recent funding raised, I'd love to hear what your vision is for the next 5 years of Webflow as a product?

Re: Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

#54

Post by PopeDotNinja »

dumbfounder wrote: post #41

I have mixed feelings about this story. I applaud your resolve, and you have certainly had a tremendous amount of success that should be celebrated! But I can't help but think about the 9 founders of other companies that had the same resolve in the same situation, but things did not work out so well. All you other people thinking about going for broke need to be ready to hit bottom and build yourself back up afterwar…

Not only did I run out of money, I ended up homeless!

TL;DR -- don't run out of money.

Re: Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

#55

Post by Techonomicon »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #42
dumbfounder wrote: post #41

I have mixed feelings about this story. I applaud your resolve, and you have certainly had a tremendous amount of success that should be celebrated! But I can't help but think about the 9 founders of other companies that had the same resolve in the same situation, but things did not work out so well. All you other people thinking about going for broke need to be ready to hit bottom and build yourself back up afterwar…

*younger people with family wealth. Some of my friends were unable to take risks because they needed to support their parents as well, and that puts a huge pressure to go with the safe money

I love this comment. I don't think this notion gets highlighted enough.

This is definitively anecdotal, though I've been at / through approximately 5 startups across 12 years, and looking back, I believe each end everyone one (except for one) was definitely helped / started by a founder or set of founders who didn't have to worry about whether they went belly up or not due to family wealth. Hell, I still know some that I've consulted for that have lived in the bay area for the past 8 years without a product that makes any money, no vc funding, and were just out of their masters 8 years ago.

Clearly looking back, nearly every founder I've worked for came from a family with $$$. Even currently, at least one of my co-ceos just up and left their 2 million dollar menlo park house and went to live in their parents vacation home in monterey right when covid began.

Taking risks becomes extremely easy when you have a large family wealth backed safety net propping you up along the way. This happens way more often than people realize, and often the founder(s) will definitely not talk about this at all / downplay it if it is brought up.

The privilege is real.

Re: Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

#57

Post by pembrook »

darepublic wrote: post #40

On an ironic note, your company is part of a trend that threatens the livelihood of devs everywhere

Fighting to keep the world complicated and inefficient, so that you can keep the same job forever and never have to learn anything new, is not looked upon favorably by history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

When we automate the boring stuff, we are free to work on harder and more important problems. This is the arc of progress, and it's in the interest of the greater good.

Re: Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

#58

Post by solidasparagus »

dvt wrote: post #44
dumbfounder wrote: post #41

I have mixed feelings about this story. I applaud your resolve, and you have certainly had a tremendous amount of success that should be celebrated! But I can't help but think about the 9 founders of other companies that had the same resolve in the same situation, but things did not work out so well. All you other people thinking about going for broke need to be ready to hit bottom and build yourself back up afterwar…

> But I can't help but think about the 9 founders of other companies that had the same resolve in the same situation, but things did not work out so well. Everyone on HN knows that the startup life is, in many ways, a lottery. But that doesn't mean it's not still one of the most reliable ways of exercising self-determination, working on something you're truly passionate about, taking full responsibility for your fate…

> still one of the most reliable ways of [...] becoming financially independent (if not outright wealthy)

There's just no way this is true. For people with the skills needed by SV startups, working at one of the startups is almost certainly financially worse than using those skills at a large company.

Re: Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

#59

Post by nojito »

dumbfounder wrote: post #41

I have mixed feelings about this story. I applaud your resolve, and you have certainly had a tremendous amount of success that should be celebrated! But I can't help but think about the 9 founders of other companies that had the same resolve in the same situation, but things did not work out so well. All you other people thinking about going for broke need to be ready to hit bottom and build yourself back up afterwar…

>I think this is why a lot of crazy big startups come from younger people, they can afford to go for broke before they have a family and other obligations, because the worst that can happen is they are left with nothing, then they settle for a high-paying job at a big tech company and 2 months later they can afford a new car.

This really isn't true. The average age of a successful entrepreneur is 45.

Re: Thanks HN: You helped save a company that now helps thousands make a living

#60

Post by notatrumper »

Techonomicon wrote: post #55
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*younger people with family wealth. Some of my friends were unable to take risks because they needed to support their parents as well, and that puts a huge pressure to go with the safe money

I love this comment. I don't think this notion gets highlighted enough. This is definitively anecdotal, though I've been at / through approximately 5 startups across 12 years, and looking back, I believe each end everyone one (except for one) was definitely helped / started by a founder or set of founders who didn't have to worry about whether they went belly up or not due to family wealth. Hell, I still know some th…

Yes, having money is good. That's why many people strive to have money.

I personally also don't think it is unfair if kids of rich parents inherit their money (or their support). After all, being able to take care of one's children is a major motivation of many people for trying to make money.

It's also well known that money is an important factor in mate choice for women.

Even without money, biology would be at work and people would be striving to find attractive mates to conceive "fit" children.

You could then also say those "fit" children are "privileged" compared to "less fit" children.

--

Anyway, as your own anecdotes highlight, if you are not rich, find another way, for example a rich person who gives you money.

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