3 ms·

Well, we're profitable, time to scale...

24 points by wmeredith 18y ago

wmeredith 18y ago
Context: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=232958 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=232958 | http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=241296 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=241296 Thanks, Hacker News! You were extremely helpful in our beta.
- khangtoh 18y ago
  save to say 200N has irb(main):014:0> (1..52).to_a.sum+(1..36).to_a.sum+(1..53).to_a.sum => 3475 revenue so far (that's the least minimum), in reality, it should be higher since $100 and lower tees are getting bought out. congrats!
tstegart 18y ago
Congratulations guys. Keep up the good work.
tc7 18y ago
Congrats, guys. Is this paying-yourselves-market-salaries profitable, or ramen profitable? :)
- wmeredith 18y ago
  Ramen, if even that. (Hence, the scaling) We've all three got day jobs, which we'll be keeping for a while. (We've also got mortgages and such...)
  - wheels 18y ago
    Honestly, startups here referring to themselves as profitable that aren't paying salaries rubs me the wrong way. Salaries are the major cost in a startup. Up until that point you're just finding ways to not lose money on your hobby.
    - babul 18y ago
      In bricks-and-mortar businesses that have real overheads (rents, wages, taxes, utility bills) and need real customers paying real money in order to sustain them, you could never say you were profitable unless your balance sheet is consistently in the black (otherwise your bank/accountant/CFO will disagree and you would be out of business). As I work on my startup, I would never call it profitable until the total income it produces exceeds the outings and includes payment for the time I spent working on it at market rates (i.e. remuneration if I had been contracting/working for others, or a realistic payday at the end of it). I appreciate for many, doing a startup is a passion and they work insane hours (as do I) and anything that gets publicity is good (hence, saying I earnt X in Y or was profitable after Z days/months to seek attention), but want to see people be more realistic about what being profitable actually is. If your startup is a hobby and something you’d do anyway that generates some spare cash, then fair enough. However if you are looking at it as a serious business model, and something you want to do full time, then you should account for the time spent on it. Can you sustain your family on the income you generate? Can you grow the business using the cash flow it creates? If not, then you are not profitable. Sorry.
maxklein 18y ago
I love what you guys did here! Simple idea, but brilliantly executed.
ComputerGuru 18y ago
Your server's really slow from here - some pages timeout when loading. Is everything OK?
- wmeredith 18y ago
  Yeah, we've had more problems, than I'd like. (I'd say we get great load times 80% of the time. the rest of the time it can be a little slow.) We're currently with Dreamhost, eying Media Temple.
  - rms 18y ago
    Media Temple Grid Server had uncomfortably high latency for me. Really terrible latency, in fact. Go VPS and never look back: Slicehost.com (best service/documentation/been on the same virtualization architecture longer than linode) or linode.com (also very highly recommended and slightly cheaper than slicehost)
  - shafqat 18y ago
    We use Mediatemple and they are great. If you want a contact, email me at shafqat at newscred.com and I can put you in touch with someone to get a discount. (I have no affiliation with them, nor do I make any money - they've simply been good to us)
  - ashleyw 18y ago
    Dreamhost? Really? Maybe its because the site is so simple, but I would find it hard to believe ANY successful startup could be ran on shared hosting, never mind Dreamhost. But a nice performance boost from shared hosting would be a 256 VPS from Slicehost ($20/mo), then you can scale up to more ram/CPU as you need it... :)
axod 18y ago
"two-week design cycle" Fortnightly then ;)
Chocobean 18y ago
late-comer here. I felt quite hesitant visiting a domain named 200nipples, but congrats, guys.
netcan 18y ago
Is the next step up the scale 1 week cycles? I like this idea. Any ideas on how to scale past 100 shirts a week?
- rms 18y ago
  101 shirts, 102 shirts, 103 shirts...
  - netcan 18y ago
    ah

24 points by wmeredith 18y ago

Context: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=232958 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=232958 | http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=241296 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=241296 Thanks, Hacker News! You were extremely helpful in our beta.

khangtoh 18y ago
save to say 200N has irb(main):014:0> (1..52).to_a.sum+(1..36).to_a.sum+(1..53).to_a.sum => 3475 revenue so far (that's the least minimum), in reality, it should be higher since $100 and lower tees are getting bought out. congrats!

tstegart 18y ago

Congratulations guys. Keep up the good work.

tc7 18y ago

Congrats, guys. Is this paying-yourselves-market-salaries profitable, or ramen profitable? :)

wmeredith 18y ago
Ramen, if even that. (Hence, the scaling) We've all three got day jobs, which we'll be keeping for a while. (We've also got mortgages and such...)
- wheels 18y ago
  Honestly, startups here referring to themselves as profitable that aren't paying salaries rubs me the wrong way. Salaries are the major cost in a startup. Up until that point you're just finding ways to not lose money on your hobby.
  - babul 18y ago
    In bricks-and-mortar businesses that have real overheads (rents, wages, taxes, utility bills) and need real customers paying real money in order to sustain them, you could never say you were profitable unless your balance sheet is consistently in the black (otherwise your bank/accountant/CFO will disagree and you would be out of business). As I work on my startup, I would never call it profitable until the total income it produces exceeds the outings and includes payment for the time I spent working on it at market rates (i.e. remuneration if I had been contracting/working for others, or a realistic payday at the end of it). I appreciate for many, doing a startup is a passion and they work insane hours (as do I) and anything that gets publicity is good (hence, saying I earnt X in Y or was profitable after Z days/months to seek attention), but want to see people be more realistic about what being profitable actually is. If your startup is a hobby and something you’d do anyway that generates some spare cash, then fair enough. However if you are looking at it as a serious business model, and something you want to do full time, then you should account for the time spent on it. Can you sustain your family on the income you generate? Can you grow the business using the cash flow it creates? If not, then you are not profitable. Sorry.

maxklein 18y ago

I love what you guys did here! Simple idea, but brilliantly executed.

ComputerGuru 18y ago

Your server's really slow from here - some pages timeout when loading. Is everything OK?

wmeredith 18y ago
Yeah, we've had more problems, than I'd like. (I'd say we get great load times 80% of the time. the rest of the time it can be a little slow.) We're currently with Dreamhost, eying Media Temple.
- rms 18y ago
  Media Temple Grid Server had uncomfortably high latency for me. Really terrible latency, in fact. Go VPS and never look back: Slicehost.com (best service/documentation/been on the same virtualization architecture longer than linode) or linode.com (also very highly recommended and slightly cheaper than slicehost)
- shafqat 18y ago
  We use Mediatemple and they are great. If you want a contact, email me at shafqat at newscred.com and I can put you in touch with someone to get a discount. (I have no affiliation with them, nor do I make any money - they've simply been good to us)
- ashleyw 18y ago
  Dreamhost? Really? Maybe its because the site is so simple, but I would find it hard to believe ANY successful startup could be ran on shared hosting, never mind Dreamhost. But a nice performance boost from shared hosting would be a 256 VPS from Slicehost ($20/mo), then you can scale up to more ram/CPU as you need it... :)

axod 18y ago

"two-week design cycle" Fortnightly then ;)

Chocobean 18y ago

late-comer here. I felt quite hesitant visiting a domain named 200nipples, but congrats, guys.

netcan 18y ago

Is the next step up the scale 1 week cycles? I like this idea. Any ideas on how to scale past 100 shirts a week?

rms 18y ago
101 shirts, 102 shirts, 103 shirts...
- netcan 18y ago
  ah