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If I may ask, what does the company do? Some kind of a store?

by asenna 9y ago

ikeboy 9y ago
Pure Amazon reselling, about 300k revenue in 2016. I would love to run a tech company, and code on the side and to some extent code tools for my business, but I feel safer in a business that's actually bringing in money.
- ganeshkrishnan 9y ago
  What do you mean "reselling"? As in selling retail goods online on Amazon?
  - ikeboy 9y ago
    Yes, exactly. Sourcing either from retail or wholesale, selling on Amazon.
    - nikanj 9y ago
      Where is the 1000x return in that? Put in 300k, sell for 300 million to..who? Not saying you don't have a great business, congratulations on making something profitable and getting ahead of 95% of the crowd here :)
      - ikeboy 9y ago
        Etailz exited for $75 million https://www.geekwire.com/2016/bootstrapped-success-story-profitable-e-commerce-retailer-etailz-sells-75m/ https://www.geekwire.com/2016/bootstrapped-success-story-pro...
      - ikeboy 9y ago
        Anyway, the idea I've been applying with is in my profile, but I didn't do much work beyond get a site built. I think it has potential but without funding I'm not going to stop what I'm doing and do that.
    - ganeshkrishnan 9y ago
      That's lifestyle business, not a startup. It's a great way to live and maintain your current lifestyle. I am not a VC, however if I was I would be looking for businesses that can generate 10x the investment in few years.The margins are really really thin in your business and its hard work We run a startup that helps sellers like you scale up and move to "Seller fullfilled prime" because that's where the profit margin is slightly better
      - toomuchtodo 9y ago
        From ikeboy above: > I would love to run a tech company, and code on the side and to some extent code tools for my business, but I feel safer in a business that's actually bringing in money. It looks like you and ikeboy would be competing in the same space, but they have actual experience as a customer for the problem that needs to be solved. ikeboy: Skip YC, study marketspace tooling, refine using your existing business to dogfood, sell those tools as a SaaS. Buy me a beer if you get rich.
        ikeboy 9y ago
        I've been thinking about that for a while, actually. Existing services are pulling in 6 figures of subscription fees monthly (e.g. Tactical Arbitrage, thousands of subscribers at $100/month). But I couldn't build something like that alone, would need to be a team and there's no way I could manage that kind of complex software and also run a reselling business.
        toomuchtodo 9y ago
        I try to be the encouraging voice on HN, so here goes my pitch: I think you could most definitely build it alone. Start with an MVP. Don't know enough code to build an MVP? Learn to code. Ruby or Python IMHO. Once you've got an MVP, dogfood part of your business through it. Iterate. Slowly, run more of your business through it. Once you're driving your entire business off of it, start selling it to others. You have the perfect testimonial: "We run our 300k/year business off of the platform, and its the core of our business". You don't know what you can do until you try. Try.

If I may ask, what does the company do? Some kind of a store?

by asenna 9y ago

If I may ask, what does the company do? Some kind of a store?

Pure Amazon reselling, about 300k revenue in 2016. I would love to run a tech company, and code on the side and to some extent code tools for my business, but I feel safer in a business that's actually bringing in money.

ganeshkrishnan 9y ago
What do you mean "reselling"? As in selling retail goods online on Amazon?
- ikeboy 9y ago
  Yes, exactly. Sourcing either from retail or wholesale, selling on Amazon.
  - nikanj 9y ago
    Where is the 1000x return in that? Put in 300k, sell for 300 million to..who? Not saying you don't have a great business, congratulations on making something profitable and getting ahead of 95% of the crowd here :)
    - ikeboy 9y ago
      Etailz exited for $75 million https://www.geekwire.com/2016/bootstrapped-success-story-profitable-e-commerce-retailer-etailz-sells-75m/ https://www.geekwire.com/2016/bootstrapped-success-story-pro...
    - ikeboy 9y ago
      Anyway, the idea I've been applying with is in my profile, but I didn't do much work beyond get a site built. I think it has potential but without funding I'm not going to stop what I'm doing and do that.
  - ganeshkrishnan 9y ago
    That's lifestyle business, not a startup. It's a great way to live and maintain your current lifestyle. I am not a VC, however if I was I would be looking for businesses that can generate 10x the investment in few years.The margins are really really thin in your business and its hard work We run a startup that helps sellers like you scale up and move to "Seller fullfilled prime" because that's where the profit margin is slightly better
    - toomuchtodo 9y ago
      From ikeboy above: > I would love to run a tech company, and code on the side and to some extent code tools for my business, but I feel safer in a business that's actually bringing in money. It looks like you and ikeboy would be competing in the same space, but they have actual experience as a customer for the problem that needs to be solved. ikeboy: Skip YC, study marketspace tooling, refine using your existing business to dogfood, sell those tools as a SaaS. Buy me a beer if you get rich.
      - ikeboy 9y ago
        I've been thinking about that for a while, actually. Existing services are pulling in 6 figures of subscription fees monthly (e.g. Tactical Arbitrage, thousands of subscribers at $100/month). But I couldn't build something like that alone, would need to be a team and there's no way I could manage that kind of complex software and also run a reselling business.
        toomuchtodo 9y ago
        I try to be the encouraging voice on HN, so here goes my pitch: I think you could most definitely build it alone. Start with an MVP. Don't know enough code to build an MVP? Learn to code. Ruby or Python IMHO. Once you've got an MVP, dogfood part of your business through it. Iterate. Slowly, run more of your business through it. Once you're driving your entire business off of it, start selling it to others. You have the perfect testimonial: "We run our 300k/year business off of the platform, and its the core of our business". You don't know what you can do until you try. Try.