4 ms·

The two aren't mutually exclusive, you could've easily started out with salary + stock options that would've put you in a better position to start a side gig.

The two aren't mutually exclusive, you could've easily started out with salary + stock options that would've put you in a better position to start a side gig. Then you might actually be driving a lambo now too ;)

Flankk 4y ago
Speaking from experience or from the ass? In my experience a startup is all consuming.
- tomatowurst 4y ago
  tarsnap is a one man show and he's not building a startup. he could've easily worked at Google, take advantage of the rising stock prices AND continue work on his SaaS. Lot of us do exactly that because it doesn't make sense to leave a good paying job at a large company to take on tremendous risk at as you said, consuming endeavour with small probability of success (+90% failure rate). I don't get why people are so upset at my comment or why that should warrant ad hominem attacks. I merely mentioned that parent could've had a job at Google and benefited from it. He made it sound like it was a power move, it really wasn't. My argument is only that he took on even more risk by not taking advantage of Google's offer and growing stock prices to fund his passion. He doesn't seem like the type to get distracted by a day job either.
  - dsr_ 4y ago
    Your comment was critical without being in any way helpful, and you tried to defuse it with a smiley. It doesn't warrant ad hominem attacks, but hardly anything does.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - HWR_14 4y ago
    > he could've easily worked at Google, take advantage of the rising stock prices AND continue work on his SaaS. Wouldn't Google then own all the code he wrote, even on his own SaaS sideproject?
qbasic_forever 4y ago
By '06 Google was already public so you weren't going to make life changing, never work again in your life money from stock awards/options. At best you'd be sitting on a decent nest egg that maybe bought you some property or better investments if you were smart (and a $250k supercar is not a smart investment).
- tomatowurst 4y ago
  if you owned stock options and invested it in Google with portion of your salary going to it, you absolutely would be looking at extreme returns. The power of compounded returns is still not clear to some I see. With that money you could've funded any side project that generates recurring revenue. I don't get why you should quit your job, take on tremendous amount of risk for a highly improbable outcome with heavy survivorship bias.
  - yowlingcat 4y ago
    > I don't get why you should quit your job, take on tremendous amount of risk for a highly improbable outcome with heavy survivorship bias. For someone like you? I'd say you shouldn't. The correct option for the vast majority of people is to stay at a stable, low risk high paying corporate job and live a comfortable upper-middle class life. For other people...it's not that much risk if you're good at fundraising, hiring and executing. For those people, the sky is the limit.
    - Aachen 4y ago
      > For someone like you? Do you know each other or is this a judgement of character based off the few words in the above comments? What they wrote sounds like good sense in general. A bit materialistic and generalizing perhaps, I wouldn't want a dino juice sapper and I have a lot of trouble doing pointless work let alone outright manipulative like adtech (but that's just me, evidently there's plenty on the other side), but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be generally smart to accept a 4-day work week offer for presumably a high salary in addition to starting something with a high failure chance. But we don't know about savings or aspirations or industry knowledge or investors cperciva might have had, hence it's a bit generalizing, even if it's generally sensible.
yowlingcat 4y ago
Did you start out with the Google salary + stock options, proceed to also start a side gig, and now drive a lambo?
- tomatowurst 4y ago
  sorta, yes, and yes ;)
  - yowlingcat 4y ago
    Carry on. Congrats, and you've got the right to say that then :)

Flankk 4y ago

Speaking from experience or from the ass? In my experience a startup is all consuming.

tomatowurst 4y ago
tarsnap is a one man show and he's not building a startup. he could've easily worked at Google, take advantage of the rising stock prices AND continue work on his SaaS. Lot of us do exactly that because it doesn't make sense to leave a good paying job at a large company to take on tremendous risk at as you said, consuming endeavour with small probability of success (+90% failure rate). I don't get why people are so upset at my comment or why that should warrant ad hominem attacks. I merely mentioned that parent could've had a job at Google and benefited from it. He made it sound like it was a power move, it really wasn't. My argument is only that he took on even more risk by not taking advantage of Google's offer and growing stock prices to fund his passion. He doesn't seem like the type to get distracted by a day job either.
- dsr_ 4y ago
  Your comment was critical without being in any way helpful, and you tried to defuse it with a smiley. It doesn't warrant ad hominem attacks, but hardly anything does.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- HWR_14 4y ago
  > he could've easily worked at Google, take advantage of the rising stock prices AND continue work on his SaaS. Wouldn't Google then own all the code he wrote, even on his own SaaS sideproject?

qbasic_forever 4y ago

By '06 Google was already public so you weren't going to make life changing, never work again in your life money from stock awards/options. At best you'd be sitting on a decent nest egg that maybe bought you some property or better investments if you were smart (and a $250k supercar is not a smart investment).

tomatowurst 4y ago
if you owned stock options and invested it in Google with portion of your salary going to it, you absolutely would be looking at extreme returns. The power of compounded returns is still not clear to some I see. With that money you could've funded any side project that generates recurring revenue. I don't get why you should quit your job, take on tremendous amount of risk for a highly improbable outcome with heavy survivorship bias.
- yowlingcat 4y ago
  > I don't get why you should quit your job, take on tremendous amount of risk for a highly improbable outcome with heavy survivorship bias. For someone like you? I'd say you shouldn't. The correct option for the vast majority of people is to stay at a stable, low risk high paying corporate job and live a comfortable upper-middle class life. For other people...it's not that much risk if you're good at fundraising, hiring and executing. For those people, the sky is the limit.
  - Aachen 4y ago
    > For someone like you? Do you know each other or is this a judgement of character based off the few words in the above comments? What they wrote sounds like good sense in general. A bit materialistic and generalizing perhaps, I wouldn't want a dino juice sapper and I have a lot of trouble doing pointless work let alone outright manipulative like adtech (but that's just me, evidently there's plenty on the other side), but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be generally smart to accept a 4-day work week offer for presumably a high salary in addition to starting something with a high failure chance. But we don't know about savings or aspirations or industry knowledge or investors cperciva might have had, hence it's a bit generalizing, even if it's generally sensible.

yowlingcat 4y ago

Did you start out with the Google salary + stock options, proceed to also start a side gig, and now drive a lambo?

tomatowurst 4y ago
sorta, yes, and yes ;)
- yowlingcat 4y ago
  Carry on. Congrats, and you've got the right to say that then :)