BitGeek

6 ms·

121.
by BitGeek 19y ago
If you're a founder and you're vesting, you already have failed math and really should go work for someone else. :-) Seriously, you founded the company and earned the shares... you paid for the investment when you were dilluted by the shar
122.
by BitGeek 19y ago
38, Started multiple companies in the past, worked for a dozen startups to boot, my co-founder is also my life partner, no kids, no roots. Going to live in bulgaria or somewhere like that, live cheap, grow fast, hire local talent.
123.
by BitGeek 19y ago
How does this compare to the age distribution of applicants?
124.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Ah, I see venture hacks isn't really on the side of the entrepreneur after all. Any VC that asks you to vest your shares is a VC who is trying to steal from you. The business pre-money valuation is value you created. Your ownership of that
125.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Whoops. I think we're in violent agreement. I agree with keeping burn rate low, and not moving to a startup hub... especially if the business is an online one.
126.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Uh, if you're spending 15 hours a week and making a decent living, what are you doing with the other 25 hours a week? If you want a startup, it sounds like you have 25 hours a week to invest in it. It doesn't sound like you need to save
127.
by BitGeek 19y ago
$30k is below the median income for the country which is $36k. If you're a software engineer, even in alabama, you can easily make $60k a year. And anyway, it doesn't matter-- if your income is that low, cost of living should be low as w
128.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Seattle is the third best startup hub, behind SF Bay and Boston and ahead of New York. Zero reason to move to the bay area if you're in seattle... and a lot of reasons not to.
129.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Ok, you're working on this in your spare time. Good, that's a good plan. You're working day jobs, and then in the evenings you're working on your startup. That's all well and good, but where's your cocaine habit? How are you blowing all
130.
by BitGeek 19y ago
I feel the same way-- when you see job postings for "Stealth mode startup", or otherwise people use it to try and add an air of intrigue to what they are doing-- it's extremely cheesy. It was cool for transmeta, but immediately after it b
131.
by BitGeek 19y ago
If you're running a web based business (eg: not a retailer, but where everything is an online service) then the domicile of the business is the web, not any nationality. In other words, you can incorporate anywhere you wish and its legitim
132.
by BitGeek 19y ago
And move to a city that favors capitalism, rather than socialism. Oh, reason 13 not to live in San Francisco: Only the bad guys carry guns.
133.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Hard to follow the conversation, but it sounds like they "just sat and talked".... and someone's getting evicted for "Running a business out of their apartment". Arent' they in the YScraper? First time I've "tuned in" and gotten an actua
134.
by BitGeek 19y ago
No need to grow slow... unless slow growth is what you want. $6k is not the difference between high growth and slow growth.
135.
by BitGeek 19y ago
I went to that site and saw a blog with a animated matrix background. I didn't get it. I know it sucks to be rejected (went thru it recently myself) but don't fall into the trap of sour grapes. Find out what you can do better, or impr
136.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Cause the only way to know anything about your customers is to look out the door? I assume they are american expats... ... or maybe they are developing a product for the 5/6th of the world that isn't America.
137.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Yeah, the matrix has you.
138.
by BitGeek 19y ago
That's true, but I'm assuming that nobody here is working on a startup that's building medical devices, a manufacturing plant, or has a high government regulatory burden. So, for your basic consumer oriented web startup, you don't need VC
139.
by BitGeek 19y ago
YC is three months of funding. IF you make $25 an hour, you can work a three month contract and save up enough to fund yourself for three months to try and get a prototype done. You can totally focus on the project for those three months
140.
by BitGeek 19y ago
I think there's a failure to acurately calculate opportunity cost going on here. At startup school they talked about (presumably VC backed) startups being a %15 chance of success. IF you have a %15 chance of building a company worth $20M
141.
by BitGeek 19y ago
cargo cult management strategy. Spot on! "The brand-building idea is all about casino thinking. The theory is, the minute you have a brand, you can cash out. This casino attitude is good for VCs but it's ruinous for programmers, and it's
142.
by BitGeek 19y ago
See, the problem that I think people are missing is that VC funding is no longer a means to an end. Implicit in your comment is that a company without VC funding cannot grow as fast as a company with VC funding. That was true ten years ago
143.
by BitGeek 19y ago
No, it means you haven't saved up enough money. :-) Good luck with getting YC funding. But there's a huge difference between YC and venture capital. When you start talking to venture capitalists, you'll see.
144.
by BitGeek 19y ago
"In summary, my problem is not with capitalism, and I am not a socialist. I merely fear that the inevitable end of capitalism is the type of corporate society that has been steadily evolving in the U.S. and elsewhere, one in which paper and
145.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Quoting yourself: "When we started our startup in 1995, the first three were our biggest expenses. We had to pay $5000 for the Netscape Commerce Server, the only software that then supported secure http connections. We paid $3000 for a serv
146.
by BitGeek 19y ago
That's a very sick and twisted view of the world-- and it is from Karl Marx. The reality is, you make money when you bring happiness to people. You make people happy and they want to give you money they want to buy more of your products b
147.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Thanks very much for the pointers! I followed up on them and they led to some interesting reading... still leaning toward erlang.
148.
by BitGeek 19y ago
The terms1 of S3DFS don't work for me so I suggest people look at MogileFS. I just learned about it recently, so I can't give a review... but it looks interesting. http://www.danga.com/mogilefs/ 1 Will pay good money for software, their
149.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Companies succeed despite VC funding, not because of it. VCs are people with more moeny than brains who are certain the situation is reversed!
150.
by BitGeek 19y ago
Don't be silly Bob. Apple is not arrogant nor greedy... unless you're a socialist who thinks that all companies that actually sell software are "arrogant and greedy". The stallman cult thinks this and they have gone so far as to have pro

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