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How I Created a $350M Software Company Knowing Nothing About Software

287 points by dangrossman 11y ago

jonesb6 11y ago
"I created a horse-racing simulation game in Applesoft BASIC in Manhattan Beach Middle School’s computer classroom and ran a small gambling operation." Great story about a successful business that gained tremendous value based on domain knowledge and grit. But you can't say you knew nothing about software.
- danso 11y ago
  Yeah...while creating a BASIC game may not seem much to professional programmers...it's a world of difference from people who know nothing about software fundamentals, such as how code is just text files. Or the concepts of loops and functions. Or the necessity of telling a program exactly what you need it to do, as opposed to learning someone else's software.
- siliconc0w 11y ago
  Was kinda sad they eventually replaced these Apple IIs with locked down macs you couldn't really program on. Might be heresy but they really should load up school companies with development tools instead of SimAnt or Oregon Trail or whatever. SimAnt was fun but I'm pretty sure I didn't learn shit from it.
acconrad 11y ago
You can distill this article into two key insights: 1. Find great people to believe in your vision. Without the two amazing coders to help him, he wouldn't have made much headway in the project at the beginning. To be able to convince brilliant developers to quit their job, sell their house, and move across the country takes an incredible visionary to convince such a skeptical demographic as the brilliant developer. 2. Get people to buy the thing you want to sell before you make it. He had $150,000 from a wealthy financier before he had a product to show for it. To be able to secure capital and then worry about delivering on it is a much more tenable problem to solve than trying to build a business without some sort of capital to live off of while you develop it.
- yen223 11y ago
  Isn't this the Theranos business model?
  - wpietri 11y ago
    I think the difference for me here was that they took money to create a known solution to a known problem. Theranos, on the other hand, seemed to have claimed to have already had a solution, when in reality they were pursuing an unknown solution to a hazy problem. (And by "hazy problem" here I basically mean that Theranos is pursuing something that sounds like a problem (medical testing) but is actually a large number of only somewhat related problems. For me, going after a known problem would have been picking one test, or a small number of them and then nailing that before expanding to adjacent problems.)
    - w1ntermute 11y ago
      The difference is between implementation/engineering, which is what most software companies are doing, and invention/science, which is what Theranos is trying to do. It's OK not to build something before selling it if you know that it's possible to make it, but just haven't done it yet because it would take time/money you don't have. It's not OK if you don't even know if it's possible.
- stevenbedrick 11y ago
  There's a third really important insight here: "Know thy product area." The author of the article may not have known anything about software, but he definitely knew a lot about call centers, as did the coders who were working with him.
6stringmerc 11y ago
Interesting article and impressive to see that kind of tenacity. Truly that's a take-away from the full perspective. The other take aways, for me, aren't nearly as complimentary. 1. Want to make a lot of money? Find an out-dated system where grunt labor is worth a lot less than the technology the grunt labor uses, and target this gap mercilessly (call centers) 2. Act like every other shady, fly-by-night, asshole salesman and cold call people without a real product until some sucker from Provo, Utah cuts you a check ($40,000 should be a good amount) 3. Aim to arbitrage a stale technology like long-distance phone calls before any of the competition, pretend getting lucky in such an opportunity is a validation of tenacity ("blieve in yourself" is trite because it's trite) >Believe that even if you do something stupid like quit your job without a clue, somehow you’re going to figure it out. ...or, you can study up on something called "survivorship bias" and realize most of the "wisdom" in the article is utterly useless.
- mildbow 11y ago
  Not sure why you think those 3 points aren't complimentary. They seem like great + useful takeaways. No, they aren't new, but they are useful. Regarding your last point: nothing is a sure thing. Of course survivorship bias is a thing. Of course believing in yourself/ability to figure stuff out isn't a sufficient condition for success. But, maybe it's just a necessary one?
  - 6stringmerc 11y ago
    Well I'll freely admit that the 3 points I'm not fond of is directly a result of, rightly or wrongly, preferring stories of tenacity to feature sympathetic characters who strive for and achieve success through merit "idealistic" avenues and behaviors. Those areas I mentioned felt a lot like short-cuts, in that glorifying "cold calling with vaporware until we get enough money to actually make software" doesn't strike me as a useful example, if morals are of any value to the person taking action. It just didn't sit right with me, and thus isn't an admirable aspect of the narrative. On the last point: Of course nothing is a sure thing, and not once has success come from "believing in yourself" trumped "talent and hard work" without straight up dumb luck. Whether starting a business, playing the lottery, or testing gravity by way of jumping off a large building, I think "believing in yourself" is flat out useless. Or, in a different way of phrasing it, "believing in yourself" is about as fundamental to entrepeneurship as waking up and getting out of bed - of course it's necessary, but that doesn't make the "you can do it too!" framing any less vapid.
nickpsecurity 11y ago
That was a great article. Funny and inspiring. Like to see that for a change. Far as lessons learned, I agree with 6stringmerc on targeting anything where tools are overpriced and investing in aggressive, skilled salespeople. These are proven practices. The first can be tricky, though, because it's often other factors that keep that tech there. Resistance to change, preferrence to deal with mature businesses, integration with horrible stuff (eg mainframe stack), and so on. Not always the case but it can kill startups when it is. Healthcare systems are a good example as many HN posts show.
iolothebard 11y ago
I live in a world full of people that love talking about doing things, but very few of them actually do anything. This is how I moved to SF. Talked about doing a startup with friends. Move out there and they'd all rather smoke weed and get drunk than work on our project. Happens in every facet of life as well. People talk about going to Europe, but never go. Talk about getting in shape, but never exercise, etc. Dreams are great, but if you act on them you might fail. Or it might actually take some thing to accomplish those dreams. Sad that more people don't follow through.
- askafriend 11y ago
  What is your relationship with those friends now?
  - iolothebard 11y ago
    Facebook acquaintances. Lives diverge, it's not a big deal. I still consider them friends, just not close friends like they were before moving out there.
- matwood 11y ago
  So true. I have a similar story, and can add that people use all sorts of things to not work on the project. Smoking weed and drinking are common, but I have found analysis paralysis to be very common in smart people. Executing is hard for a number of reasons, and the hardest to get over is that you'll likely prove your idea sucks and was just braincrack [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sHCQWjTrJ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sHCQWjTrJ8 (contains cursing)
  - hoodoof 11y ago
    >> you'll likely prove your idea sucks and was just braincrack Are you reading my mind?
  - golergka 11y ago
    Not necessarily a bad thing. I started a lot of projects that never took off because I wanted to use the best tools and in the best way possible. Projects shmojects, the knowledge of these tools serves me to this day.
pavornyoh 11y ago
The day trader pointed to a picture of a small jet on his office wall and said, “I want you to help me buy this.” He then wrote us a check for $150,000 on the spot, and we were officially funded. Inspiring and really like this. Sometimes, you just need that one person to believe in you if you don't have the means...
- tyre 11y ago
  More than believing in you, it speaks to the importance of empathy. That day-trader didn't want to revolutionize call-centers, he wanted a fucking jet. As the business owner, recognize where his goals (getting rich) and yours (getting funding to grow the business) converge.
josh2600 11y ago
I worked very closely with Five9 for years. I can say that every company has their flaws but the key thing I took away from my time with them is that technology is in service of business goals, not the other way around. There were always discussions of what a "perfect" system might look like, and, every time, cooler heads prevailed. They simply did what was needed to meet their business goals and there's something admirable about that clarity. Is Five9's product the best in call centers? No, but it's about an order of magnitude cheaper than the top product and works most of the time.
dalacv 11y ago
For those reading this article and wondering about a niche area that is in need of innovators: LIMS - Laboratory Information Management Systems. Here's the deal. Most manufacturing companies (think Big Pharma, Petrochemical, Chemical, Widget manufacturing, anything really) measure quality. Those quality measurements are probably done in a laboratory. Every laboratory generates data. All that data needs to be managed well so that the laboratory can maintain its accredidation. Basically, LIMS systems manage samples and lab result data. In addition, they probably integrate with Instruments and instrument software to automate some of that data entry. Other industries besides manufacturing are Govt (waste and wastewater treatment labs), Third-party labs (labs that do testing for other companies), Healthcare (clinical labs), Forensic Labs, and more. Bottom line, there are tons of laboratories and they all need to manage their data. The players in this space are downright stuck in the last decade. There is so much opportunity here for a few new players.
- dejv 11y ago
  I am doing something like this (aimed to QA/contract laboratories), it is in pivot phase with first customer, replacing pen and paper system (for laboratory doing 500 samples a day). Let me know if you want to check it out.
  - dalacv 11y ago
    That is definitely the way to go. Get a real-live customer and build up the system for them.
- danieltillett 11y ago
  As someone who has sells a LIMS module for DNA sequencing the problem is the people that run theses systems do not like change. You need a scientific background to run these labs, but the work is very routine. The personalities that gravitate towards being a lab manager are the personalities that really, really, really like systems to stay the same. It is a very tough sell to get them to use something new no matter how good.
  - 11y ago
serge2k 11y ago
> I’ve always wanted to make a lot of money, have people pay a lot of attention to me and do a lot of exciting things. I just never knew how. What's the equivalent of a clickbait headline when it's in the article?
- soared 11y ago
  The title when I repost this to reddit tomorrow?
lazyant 11y ago
My takeaway: a) have good contacts b) be a good salesman c) be persistent d) be lucky. The "believe in yourself" part is to help with point c.
- danieltillett 11y ago
  I would also say that believing in yourself helps a great deal with b as well. Sales is very harsh on the ego. I am always impressed with how sales people can handle the level of rejection they get day in and day out. I am a very good closer, but I am not too good at taking the abuse and rejection that is involved with cold calling.
michaelbuckbee 11y ago
Single most important line in the entire article: "And that’s really how the curve in our hockey stick began. We finally figured out a way to deliver a product that was 10x better and 5x cheaper."
joshstrange 11y ago
I hate to judge a book by it's cover (or an article by it's title) but good lord... All it's missing is "this one weird trick". Edit: Ok now that I've read it I can say I judged it fairly. Survivorship bias to the max... This guy got lucky and the article doesn't really touch on anything he did that you wouldn't already expect...
dyoder 11y ago
Short version: Convince great software developers to work mostly for stock options ($150K for 3 employees) and “harass [them] into programming day and night,“ while selling promises that they will need to back up with working software. Not an original strategy.
- FLUX-YOU 11y ago
  Nah hold up, I haven't heard this one before: >You just have to believe in yourself against all reasonable logic, as trite as that sounds.
- woah 11y ago
  Hey, that's what I thought too, but you do need someone to sell customers and investors on the concept. Also it sounds like he had a huge product and project management role as well.
- djsumdog 11y ago
  The amount of risks everyone in this story took is pretty psychopathic. It's not sane, but those are the people who make it big. Those are the people we reward. Those are the people who get away free when the entire mortgage industry collapsed in 2008. ...and for everyone one of these success stories, there are probably 8, 10...12 or more stories of people who totally failed and ended up with $200k in debt still paying it off from failed startups. There's a side not talking about on Hacker News and it needs to be.
ErikAugust 11y ago
Man, does TechCrunch know their target demographic: "I’ve always wanted to make a lot of money, have people pay a lot of attention to me and do a lot of exciting things. I just never knew how."
- randycupertino 11y ago
  Haha... I loved his bold open. It was actually refreshing to see such a level of frank self-awareness of grandiosity.
anonpoops 11y ago
ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
hayksaakian 11y ago
This is how you know he's good at sales. Always ask for a referral at the end of every call. > Then I called him back and asked him, as calmly as I could, if he knew of anyone else at his newly acquired startup that might want to create a software company with me. I reminded him that I was good at selling shit. He introduced me to “Tooter,” who, it turned out, was heading my way to go snowboarding in Tahoe.
juanrossi 11y ago
Does anyone knows why his name doesn't appear even once in the SEC S1 filing [1] for the IPO? He could have sold all his shares before the IPO, but thought it was weird. [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288847/000119312514078791/d626745ds1.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288847/000119312514...
- Terretta 11y ago
  The truth was, the company ... didn’t need him anymore.
hackaflocka 11y ago
"Because a SaaS call center product has to have three phone connections ongoing per each call center agent (versus the traditional two in an on-premise model)" Can someone please clarify why 3 and 2 connections are needed in each case?
- ec109685 11y ago
  In SAS model w/ no voip, a call needs to be made from call center to SAS system that manages call. They both need one to connect customer to call center and another call center software to agent.
  - hackaflocka 11y ago
    Does this sound logical to you though? In 2009? You're saying that the software wasn't available online? The call center had to make a "call" to the SAS system? Could be true but sounds bizarre.
mrbill 11y ago
>"I led the company to $10 million in annually recurring revenues before I departed." Wouldn't a more correct article title be "How I created a $10M Software Company..."? The $350M was after he left.
- akcreek 11y ago
  It would be closer for sure, but $10MM was ARR, so the value of the business was likely $30MM+. The $350MM number was the value at IPO.
HiLo 11y ago
If getting $150k before doing pretty much anything else was standard, it would be significantly easier to create sub-billion dollar companies. I've looked at multiple companies that wouldn't have needed further funding at all beyond about $75k unless they wanted to accelerate growth further, and would have made all of their participants extremely wealthy.
- eropple 11y ago
  Yup. That's where I am right now. My current project could turn into a successful, and eventually relatively hands-off, business if I had about $50K more in the bank than I do right now. So I'm working on it on the side while I put that together, but it's slow.
jrochkind1 11y ago
I think he's probably not as big a jerk as he makes himself sound like.
- rhizome 11y ago
  In fairness, he doesn't mention anything about how the people who helped him made out in the deal.
sufiyan 11y ago
Did he finally become a doctor?
NumberCruncher 11y ago
There is a lot of hustling around in this story. One former bookie with callcenter experience and courage to make tousands of cold calls and one brilliant programmer involved in illegal activities burning bridges (quitting job and moving to an other state) and selling software to the 2nd worst slavedrivers of the 21th century (fast food chains are still worse employers than callcenters).

287 points by dangrossman 11y ago

"I created a horse-racing simulation game in Applesoft BASIC in Manhattan Beach Middle School’s computer classroom and ran a small gambling operation." Great story about a successful business that gained tremendous value based on domain knowledge and grit. But you can't say you knew nothing about software.

danso 11y ago
Yeah...while creating a BASIC game may not seem much to professional programmers...it's a world of difference from people who know nothing about software fundamentals, such as how code is just text files. Or the concepts of loops and functions. Or the necessity of telling a program exactly what you need it to do, as opposed to learning someone else's software.
siliconc0w 11y ago
Was kinda sad they eventually replaced these Apple IIs with locked down macs you couldn't really program on. Might be heresy but they really should load up school companies with development tools instead of SimAnt or Oregon Trail or whatever. SimAnt was fun but I'm pretty sure I didn't learn shit from it.

acconrad 11y ago

You can distill this article into two key insights: 1. Find great people to believe in your vision. Without the two amazing coders to help him, he wouldn't have made much headway in the project at the beginning. To be able to convince brilliant developers to quit their job, sell their house, and move across the country takes an incredible visionary to convince such a skeptical demographic as the brilliant developer. 2. Get people to buy the thing you want to sell before you make it. He had $150,000 from a wealthy financier before he had a product to show for it. To be able to secure capital and then worry about delivering on it is a much more tenable problem to solve than trying to build a business without some sort of capital to live off of while you develop it.

yen223 11y ago
Isn't this the Theranos business model?
- wpietri 11y ago
  I think the difference for me here was that they took money to create a known solution to a known problem. Theranos, on the other hand, seemed to have claimed to have already had a solution, when in reality they were pursuing an unknown solution to a hazy problem. (And by "hazy problem" here I basically mean that Theranos is pursuing something that sounds like a problem (medical testing) but is actually a large number of only somewhat related problems. For me, going after a known problem would have been picking one test, or a small number of them and then nailing that before expanding to adjacent problems.)
  - w1ntermute 11y ago
    The difference is between implementation/engineering, which is what most software companies are doing, and invention/science, which is what Theranos is trying to do. It's OK not to build something before selling it if you know that it's possible to make it, but just haven't done it yet because it would take time/money you don't have. It's not OK if you don't even know if it's possible.
stevenbedrick 11y ago
There's a third really important insight here: "Know thy product area." The author of the article may not have known anything about software, but he definitely knew a lot about call centers, as did the coders who were working with him.

6stringmerc 11y ago

Interesting article and impressive to see that kind of tenacity. Truly that's a take-away from the full perspective. The other take aways, for me, aren't nearly as complimentary. 1. Want to make a lot of money? Find an out-dated system where grunt labor is worth a lot less than the technology the grunt labor uses, and target this gap mercilessly (call centers) 2. Act like every other shady, fly-by-night, asshole salesman and cold call people without a real product until some sucker from Provo, Utah cuts you a check ($40,000 should be a good amount) 3. Aim to arbitrage a stale technology like long-distance phone calls before any of the competition, pretend getting lucky in such an opportunity is a validation of tenacity ("blieve in yourself" is trite because it's trite) >Believe that even if you do something stupid like quit your job without a clue, somehow you’re going to figure it out. ...or, you can study up on something called "survivorship bias" and realize most of the "wisdom" in the article is utterly useless.

mildbow 11y ago
Not sure why you think those 3 points aren't complimentary. They seem like great + useful takeaways. No, they aren't new, but they are useful. Regarding your last point: nothing is a sure thing. Of course survivorship bias is a thing. Of course believing in yourself/ability to figure stuff out isn't a sufficient condition for success. But, maybe it's just a necessary one?
- 6stringmerc 11y ago
  Well I'll freely admit that the 3 points I'm not fond of is directly a result of, rightly or wrongly, preferring stories of tenacity to feature sympathetic characters who strive for and achieve success through merit "idealistic" avenues and behaviors. Those areas I mentioned felt a lot like short-cuts, in that glorifying "cold calling with vaporware until we get enough money to actually make software" doesn't strike me as a useful example, if morals are of any value to the person taking action. It just didn't sit right with me, and thus isn't an admirable aspect of the narrative. On the last point: Of course nothing is a sure thing, and not once has success come from "believing in yourself" trumped "talent and hard work" without straight up dumb luck. Whether starting a business, playing the lottery, or testing gravity by way of jumping off a large building, I think "believing in yourself" is flat out useless. Or, in a different way of phrasing it, "believing in yourself" is about as fundamental to entrepeneurship as waking up and getting out of bed - of course it's necessary, but that doesn't make the "you can do it too!" framing any less vapid.

nickpsecurity 11y ago

That was a great article. Funny and inspiring. Like to see that for a change. Far as lessons learned, I agree with 6stringmerc on targeting anything where tools are overpriced and investing in aggressive, skilled salespeople. These are proven practices. The first can be tricky, though, because it's often other factors that keep that tech there. Resistance to change, preferrence to deal with mature businesses, integration with horrible stuff (eg mainframe stack), and so on. Not always the case but it can kill startups when it is. Healthcare systems are a good example as many HN posts show.

iolothebard 11y ago

I live in a world full of people that love talking about doing things, but very few of them actually do anything. This is how I moved to SF. Talked about doing a startup with friends. Move out there and they'd all rather smoke weed and get drunk than work on our project. Happens in every facet of life as well. People talk about going to Europe, but never go. Talk about getting in shape, but never exercise, etc. Dreams are great, but if you act on them you might fail. Or it might actually take some thing to accomplish those dreams. Sad that more people don't follow through.

askafriend 11y ago
What is your relationship with those friends now?
- iolothebard 11y ago
  Facebook acquaintances. Lives diverge, it's not a big deal. I still consider them friends, just not close friends like they were before moving out there.
matwood 11y ago
So true. I have a similar story, and can add that people use all sorts of things to not work on the project. Smoking weed and drinking are common, but I have found analysis paralysis to be very common in smart people. Executing is hard for a number of reasons, and the hardest to get over is that you'll likely prove your idea sucks and was just braincrack [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sHCQWjTrJ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sHCQWjTrJ8 (contains cursing)
- hoodoof 11y ago
  >> you'll likely prove your idea sucks and was just braincrack Are you reading my mind?
- golergka 11y ago
  Not necessarily a bad thing. I started a lot of projects that never took off because I wanted to use the best tools and in the best way possible. Projects shmojects, the knowledge of these tools serves me to this day.

pavornyoh 11y ago

The day trader pointed to a picture of a small jet on his office wall and said, “I want you to help me buy this.” He then wrote us a check for $150,000 on the spot, and we were officially funded. Inspiring and really like this. Sometimes, you just need that one person to believe in you if you don't have the means...

tyre 11y ago
More than believing in you, it speaks to the importance of empathy. That day-trader didn't want to revolutionize call-centers, he wanted a fucking jet. As the business owner, recognize where his goals (getting rich) and yours (getting funding to grow the business) converge.

josh2600 11y ago

I worked very closely with Five9 for years. I can say that every company has their flaws but the key thing I took away from my time with them is that technology is in service of business goals, not the other way around. There were always discussions of what a "perfect" system might look like, and, every time, cooler heads prevailed. They simply did what was needed to meet their business goals and there's something admirable about that clarity. Is Five9's product the best in call centers? No, but it's about an order of magnitude cheaper than the top product and works most of the time.

dalacv 11y ago

For those reading this article and wondering about a niche area that is in need of innovators: LIMS - Laboratory Information Management Systems. Here's the deal. Most manufacturing companies (think Big Pharma, Petrochemical, Chemical, Widget manufacturing, anything really) measure quality. Those quality measurements are probably done in a laboratory. Every laboratory generates data. All that data needs to be managed well so that the laboratory can maintain its accredidation. Basically, LIMS systems manage samples and lab result data. In addition, they probably integrate with Instruments and instrument software to automate some of that data entry. Other industries besides manufacturing are Govt (waste and wastewater treatment labs), Third-party labs (labs that do testing for other companies), Healthcare (clinical labs), Forensic Labs, and more. Bottom line, there are tons of laboratories and they all need to manage their data. The players in this space are downright stuck in the last decade. There is so much opportunity here for a few new players.

dejv 11y ago
I am doing something like this (aimed to QA/contract laboratories), it is in pivot phase with first customer, replacing pen and paper system (for laboratory doing 500 samples a day). Let me know if you want to check it out.
- dalacv 11y ago
  That is definitely the way to go. Get a real-live customer and build up the system for them.
danieltillett 11y ago
As someone who has sells a LIMS module for DNA sequencing the problem is the people that run theses systems do not like change. You need a scientific background to run these labs, but the work is very routine. The personalities that gravitate towards being a lab manager are the personalities that really, really, really like systems to stay the same. It is a very tough sell to get them to use something new no matter how good.
- 11y ago

serge2k 11y ago

> I’ve always wanted to make a lot of money, have people pay a lot of attention to me and do a lot of exciting things. I just never knew how. What's the equivalent of a clickbait headline when it's in the article?

soared 11y ago
The title when I repost this to reddit tomorrow?

lazyant 11y ago

My takeaway: a) have good contacts b) be a good salesman c) be persistent d) be lucky. The "believe in yourself" part is to help with point c.

danieltillett 11y ago
I would also say that believing in yourself helps a great deal with b as well. Sales is very harsh on the ego. I am always impressed with how sales people can handle the level of rejection they get day in and day out. I am a very good closer, but I am not too good at taking the abuse and rejection that is involved with cold calling.

michaelbuckbee 11y ago

Single most important line in the entire article: "And that’s really how the curve in our hockey stick began. We finally figured out a way to deliver a product that was 10x better and 5x cheaper."

joshstrange 11y ago

I hate to judge a book by it's cover (or an article by it's title) but good lord... All it's missing is "this one weird trick". Edit: Ok now that I've read it I can say I judged it fairly. Survivorship bias to the max... This guy got lucky and the article doesn't really touch on anything he did that you wouldn't already expect...

dyoder 11y ago

Short version: Convince great software developers to work mostly for stock options ($150K for 3 employees) and “harass [them] into programming day and night,“ while selling promises that they will need to back up with working software. Not an original strategy.

FLUX-YOU 11y ago
Nah hold up, I haven't heard this one before: >You just have to believe in yourself against all reasonable logic, as trite as that sounds.
woah 11y ago
Hey, that's what I thought too, but you do need someone to sell customers and investors on the concept. Also it sounds like he had a huge product and project management role as well.
djsumdog 11y ago
The amount of risks everyone in this story took is pretty psychopathic. It's not sane, but those are the people who make it big. Those are the people we reward. Those are the people who get away free when the entire mortgage industry collapsed in 2008. ...and for everyone one of these success stories, there are probably 8, 10...12 or more stories of people who totally failed and ended up with $200k in debt still paying it off from failed startups. There's a side not talking about on Hacker News and it needs to be.

ErikAugust 11y ago

Man, does TechCrunch know their target demographic: "I’ve always wanted to make a lot of money, have people pay a lot of attention to me and do a lot of exciting things. I just never knew how."

randycupertino 11y ago
Haha... I loved his bold open. It was actually refreshing to see such a level of frank self-awareness of grandiosity.

anonpoops 11y ago

ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME

hayksaakian 11y ago

This is how you know he's good at sales. Always ask for a referral at the end of every call. > Then I called him back and asked him, as calmly as I could, if he knew of anyone else at his newly acquired startup that might want to create a software company with me. I reminded him that I was good at selling shit. He introduced me to “Tooter,” who, it turned out, was heading my way to go snowboarding in Tahoe.

juanrossi 11y ago

Does anyone knows why his name doesn't appear even once in the SEC S1 filing [1] for the IPO? He could have sold all his shares before the IPO, but thought it was weird. [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288847/000119312514078791/d626745ds1.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288847/000119312514...

Terretta 11y ago
The truth was, the company ... didn’t need him anymore.

hackaflocka 11y ago

"Because a SaaS call center product has to have three phone connections ongoing per each call center agent (versus the traditional two in an on-premise model)" Can someone please clarify why 3 and 2 connections are needed in each case?

ec109685 11y ago
In SAS model w/ no voip, a call needs to be made from call center to SAS system that manages call. They both need one to connect customer to call center and another call center software to agent.
- hackaflocka 11y ago
  Does this sound logical to you though? In 2009? You're saying that the software wasn't available online? The call center had to make a "call" to the SAS system? Could be true but sounds bizarre.

mrbill 11y ago

>"I led the company to $10 million in annually recurring revenues before I departed." Wouldn't a more correct article title be "How I created a $10M Software Company..."? The $350M was after he left.

akcreek 11y ago
It would be closer for sure, but $10MM was ARR, so the value of the business was likely $30MM+. The $350MM number was the value at IPO.

HiLo 11y ago

If getting $150k before doing pretty much anything else was standard, it would be significantly easier to create sub-billion dollar companies. I've looked at multiple companies that wouldn't have needed further funding at all beyond about $75k unless they wanted to accelerate growth further, and would have made all of their participants extremely wealthy.

eropple 11y ago
Yup. That's where I am right now. My current project could turn into a successful, and eventually relatively hands-off, business if I had about $50K more in the bank than I do right now. So I'm working on it on the side while I put that together, but it's slow.

jrochkind1 11y ago

I think he's probably not as big a jerk as he makes himself sound like.

rhizome 11y ago
In fairness, he doesn't mention anything about how the people who helped him made out in the deal.

sufiyan 11y ago

Did he finally become a doctor?

NumberCruncher 11y ago

There is a lot of hustling around in this story. One former bookie with callcenter experience and courage to make tousands of cold calls and one brilliant programmer involved in illegal activities burning bridges (quitting job and moving to an other state) and selling software to the 2nd worst slavedrivers of the 21th century (fast food chains are still worse employers than callcenters).