3 ms·

Tips for getting clients? Sell cake

49 points by nate 11y ago

dawnbreez 11y ago
Point number one is the most important one. The best salesmen can sell dirt, but anyone can sell gold.
- nate 11y ago
  Love that. Thanks.
dsr_ 11y ago
Did you ask permission from the redditor to post his/her question on medium?
- csours 11y ago
  Your question makes me wonder: Are questions (by themselves) copyrightable?
  - dsr_ 11y ago
    All minimally original expressions (other than facts) gain copyright status as soon as they are expressed in a fixed form. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Prote... There's a fair-use right which might apply, but this is clearly promotional for Nate's reputation and current business. It could all be avoided by slightly reworking the beginning and not quoting without permission, or by getting permission.
    - chc 11y ago
      Newspapers are for-profit businesses, but nothing stops them quoting things because fair use is not solely for noncommercial ventures.
johansch 11y ago
Interesting, sort of. But I worry that HN is turning into a "get rich quick" type of forum.
- samfisher83 11y ago
  Isn't that the whole VC mentality? To me it seems like VC mentality is If you aren't growing really really fast you are failing.
- nate 11y ago
  Hmm, sorry if my article seems to come across that way? I feel like many of the points I'm making are very much: you aren't going to get rich quick. You need to practice to get good at something for a long time. You need to take the long game approach to building an audience (Basecamp took awhile to build up its audience which eventually propelled its product which still took awhile and never became a 'unicorn'). Going to where your customers are is a grind. You just keep talking though and eventually you find a ton of value from those conversations. Inkling (YC W06!) was a long grind. Never turned into a unicorn. Never got rich. But... all the hard work eventually led to us figuring out how to make a living from it. Same with Cityposh from YC S11. That was a total bust. But eventually, after a ton of pain and even had to take a break and do the Obama campaign tech team, figured out some value that turned into Draft (http://draftin.com http://draftin.com) which tada also hasn't made me rich. But it makes some decent revenue for a thing that runs on its own and took one person to build and maintain. A lot of grinding and figuring this stuff out and doing stuff I mention in this article kept getting me further and further and further. And now all this stuff led to me taking over Highrise (http://highrisehq.com http://highrisehq.com). I'm not rich like some f u money acquisition, skyrocketing, startup success story, but through all this long hard work for a decade I've been able to largely wake up and work on whatever I deemed important, and explore lots of weird ideas, write, not travel so I could hang out at home with my family (my consultant days sucked) and 19 month old daughter. I think anyone can repeat this too. There's usually always a way to make some money from something we think we're passionate about. It's probably not plan A, B, C, D, or E. But eventually we can figure out an angle. But you're right, it's not quick. The stuff in this article took me a long time. But it was worth it. And I'm happy to help anyone I can figure this out. What can I do? @natekontny on Twitter and nate.kontny on Gmail. Please let me know how I can help.
meesterdude 11y ago
is it an article or is it an ad? who can tell!

49 points by nate 11y ago

dawnbreez 11y ago

Point number one is the most important one. The best salesmen can sell dirt, but anyone can sell gold.

nate 11y ago
Love that. Thanks.

dsr_ 11y ago

Did you ask permission from the redditor to post his/her question on medium?

csours 11y ago
Your question makes me wonder: Are questions (by themselves) copyrightable?
- dsr_ 11y ago
  All minimally original expressions (other than facts) gain copyright status as soon as they are expressed in a fixed form. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Prote... There's a fair-use right which might apply, but this is clearly promotional for Nate's reputation and current business. It could all be avoided by slightly reworking the beginning and not quoting without permission, or by getting permission.
  - chc 11y ago
    Newspapers are for-profit businesses, but nothing stops them quoting things because fair use is not solely for noncommercial ventures.

johansch 11y ago

Interesting, sort of. But I worry that HN is turning into a "get rich quick" type of forum.

samfisher83 11y ago
Isn't that the whole VC mentality? To me it seems like VC mentality is If you aren't growing really really fast you are failing.
nate 11y ago
Hmm, sorry if my article seems to come across that way? I feel like many of the points I'm making are very much: you aren't going to get rich quick. You need to practice to get good at something for a long time. You need to take the long game approach to building an audience (Basecamp took awhile to build up its audience which eventually propelled its product which still took awhile and never became a 'unicorn'). Going to where your customers are is a grind. You just keep talking though and eventually you find a ton of value from those conversations. Inkling (YC W06!) was a long grind. Never turned into a unicorn. Never got rich. But... all the hard work eventually led to us figuring out how to make a living from it. Same with Cityposh from YC S11. That was a total bust. But eventually, after a ton of pain and even had to take a break and do the Obama campaign tech team, figured out some value that turned into Draft (http://draftin.com http://draftin.com) which tada also hasn't made me rich. But it makes some decent revenue for a thing that runs on its own and took one person to build and maintain. A lot of grinding and figuring this stuff out and doing stuff I mention in this article kept getting me further and further and further. And now all this stuff led to me taking over Highrise (http://highrisehq.com http://highrisehq.com). I'm not rich like some f u money acquisition, skyrocketing, startup success story, but through all this long hard work for a decade I've been able to largely wake up and work on whatever I deemed important, and explore lots of weird ideas, write, not travel so I could hang out at home with my family (my consultant days sucked) and 19 month old daughter. I think anyone can repeat this too. There's usually always a way to make some money from something we think we're passionate about. It's probably not plan A, B, C, D, or E. But eventually we can figure out an angle. But you're right, it's not quick. The stuff in this article took me a long time. But it was worth it. And I'm happy to help anyone I can figure this out. What can I do? @natekontny on Twitter and nate.kontny on Gmail. Please let me know how I can help.

meesterdude 11y ago

is it an article or is it an ad? who can tell!