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is it really a fantastic income? tarsnap is well-known and we're seeing the value after 14 years of work. $250k/y is much less than what you would be making at

is it really a fantastic income? tarsnap is well-known and we're seeing the value after 14 years of work. $250k/y is much less than what you would be making at a FAANG.

stanmancan 3y ago
Your math only makes sense if you’re assuming they got all their customers year one and have had no growth since. Who’s to say the donations last year weren’t $100,000 putting the estimated profits at $1.2m (assuming all months are roughly equal)?
- loeg 3y ago
  Doesn't that makes the calculus worse for the startup, not better, due to time value of money? The counterfactual FANG worker chugging along at 250k/year has had health insurance, deductible retirement contributions, and years of stock market growth to appreciate their nest egg.
  - stanmancan 3y ago
    I don’t think so? $300,000/year for 14 years is $4.2m If you’re making $1m in profit after 14 years it doesn’t take long to catch up even if your first few years were slow. You also are sitting on a business you could likely sell for $5-10m on top of that.
- cperciva 3y ago
  Who’s to say the donations last year weren’t $100,000 putting the estimated profits at $1.2m To answer the rhetorical question: I can tell you that. I wish, though. ;-) Reality is somewhere between those two hypotheticals. The past few years, my now-2.5-year-old has been taking a lot of my attention and I haven't really been focused on Tarsnap's growth.
gurchik 3y ago
> is it really a fantastic income? Just because it's less than a FAANG doesn't mean it's not a fantastic income. I make less than this, in a HCOL area, and I think I have a pretty fantastic income. $250k/yr is 3.3x the median household income in the US ($74,580 according to the 2022 Census).
- somsak2 3y ago
  "fantastic" is always going to depend on context -- you could also say $250k/yr is 80x the median global income. In this case, I'm sure the owner could easily make a FAANG income if he so desired, which is why I used it as a comparison point.

is it really a fantastic income? tarsnap is well-known and we're seeing the value after 14 years of work. $250k/y is much less than what you would be making at a FAANG.

stanmancan 3y ago

Your math only makes sense if you’re assuming they got all their customers year one and have had no growth since. Who’s to say the donations last year weren’t $100,000 putting the estimated profits at $1.2m (assuming all months are roughly equal)?

loeg 3y ago
Doesn't that makes the calculus worse for the startup, not better, due to time value of money? The counterfactual FANG worker chugging along at 250k/year has had health insurance, deductible retirement contributions, and years of stock market growth to appreciate their nest egg.
- stanmancan 3y ago
  I don’t think so? $300,000/year for 14 years is $4.2m If you’re making $1m in profit after 14 years it doesn’t take long to catch up even if your first few years were slow. You also are sitting on a business you could likely sell for $5-10m on top of that.
cperciva 3y ago
Who’s to say the donations last year weren’t $100,000 putting the estimated profits at $1.2m To answer the rhetorical question: I can tell you that. I wish, though. ;-) Reality is somewhere between those two hypotheticals. The past few years, my now-2.5-year-old has been taking a lot of my attention and I haven't really been focused on Tarsnap's growth.

gurchik 3y ago

> is it really a fantastic income? Just because it's less than a FAANG doesn't mean it's not a fantastic income. I make less than this, in a HCOL area, and I think I have a pretty fantastic income. $250k/yr is 3.3x the median household income in the US ($74,580 according to the 2022 Census).

somsak2 3y ago
"fantastic" is always going to depend on context -- you could also say $250k/yr is 80x the median global income. In this case, I'm sure the owner could easily make a FAANG income if he so desired, which is why I used it as a comparison point.