Mojito island is a mirage • Hacker News Board

Re: Mojito island is a mirage

#61

Post by dagw » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 10:55 PM UTC

Poiesis wrote: post #55

anigbrowl wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have other things you love to do but which are much less likely to yield up the financial security you want (or need, if you have a family). Suppose you want to dedicate yourself to, I don't know, singing opera. Maybe you know you'll never make it big professionally but you'd like to run an amateur opera company and perform moderately well for free. Or you want to run a charity of some sort. Or paint. Or...

Yes, I get this. And if this applies, sure--take the money. I guess you weren't doing what you wanted before. But what if you were already doing what you wanted? If you're lucky enough to wake up and do something you'd pay to do--and get paid handsomely for it--why the heck would you want to stop for more money? Again--already making good money, already doing what you love: why stop?

Am I the only person who has several things I want to do? Even if I was making $1million a year in my dream programming job I can totally see myself taking the $40million, quitting that job and trying out starting up something with one of the other things I want to do. Who knows I might even enjoy that more.

Re: Mojito island is a mirage

#62

Post by replicatorblog » Mon, Sep 21, 2009, 11:30 PM UTC

tjogin wrote: post #57

replicatorblog wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. DHH is confusing a life of relaxation with the security that comes with a big payday. It's less about sipping mojitos and more the ability to pay for college, mortgage, retirement, and relieving the stress all those things bring. The tradeoff he proposes is a straw man: "Pull a few million from revenue each year or take a lump sum". Is this realistic in most cases? If Mint turned down Intuit, they could have…

> I know the 37 Signals guys are anti-VC, but it is a real, lucrative, and demonstrable way to create wealth. I think their point is exactly that it isn't. DHH gave a talk at Startup School 08 ( http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/david-heinemeier-hans... ) wherein he likened that kind of big exit to winning the lottery. I think this is the point they're trying to make: you're much better off trying to build a bus…

By demonstrable I mean we can point to 100-200 companies in a ten year period that took VC and had respectable exits. There are probably more than that, but there is a good sample size.

I agree that it is improbable, but still better than the lottery. My point was that there are lots of well known examples from the VC route, but fewer success stories in the 37 Signals mold. It also might just be that they are lesser known, but instead of berating the VC industry maybe they could turn their spotlight on exemplars in their model? 37S, Craigslist, Plenty of Fish, are there a couple hundred bootstraped web startups that they could point to?

Re: Mojito island is a mirage

#63

Post by mattiss » Tue, Sep 22, 2009, 1:26 AM UTC

A big exit gives you freedom from everything. Want to start a new venture? Do it. Want to sail around the world? Go to town. Having to work every year, albeit for 2 million a year, still means having to work.

Re: Mojito island is a mirage

#64

Post by tjogin » Tue, Sep 22, 2009, 6:37 AM UTC

replicatorblog wrote: post #62

tjogin wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know the 37 Signals guys are anti-VC, but it is a real, lucrative, and demonstrable way to create wealth. I think their point is exactly that it isn't. DHH gave a talk at Startup School 08 ( http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/david-heinemeier-hans... ) wherein he likened that kind of big exit to winning the lottery. I think this is the point they're trying to make: you're much better off trying to build a bus…

By demonstrable I mean we can point to 100-200 companies in a ten year period that took VC and had respectable exits. There are probably more than that, but there is a good sample size. I agree that it is improbable, but still better than the lottery. My point was that there are lots of well known examples from the VC route, but fewer success stories in the 37 Signals mold. It also might just be that they are lesser…

100-200 companies in ten years doesn't sound like a lot. How many people won the lottery during the same timeframe?

I think DHH has a point. While hoping for the big exit isn't exactly like hoping to win the lottery, I'd say he's right that you stand a much better chance of being able to build a profitable business.

I think there's probably a lot more than 100-200 web companies that have built a profitable business that they're earning a very nice living from.

Re: Mojito island is a mirage

#65

Post by jgrahamc » Tue, Sep 22, 2009, 10:39 AM UTC

fizx wrote: post #53

pyre wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does 37signals even make $40M in revenue?

DHH's car says so: http://www.flickr.com/photos/symmetricalism/2860363997/ ;)

Reminds me of a great Alain de Botton quote: http://twitter.com/alaindebotton/status/2781110491