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It launched right here on HN 14 years ago. https://x.com/shl/status/1908090697984426227/photo/1 https://x.com/shl/status/1908090697984426227/photo/1

by rmason 2y ago

ihowlatthemoon 2y ago
Original discussion thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614
- owebmaster 2y ago
  One day work to start a multi-million project, 13 years ago. That's the real vibing.
  - ignoramous 2y ago
    Some might not be aware: It wasn't always smooth sailing for Sahil (could have had a much comfortable life if he stayed put at Pinterest). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37059594 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37059594
    - jatins 2y ago
      didn't he mention that he got fired from Pinterest?
- occamschainsaw 2y ago
  Interesting discussion on the merits of the initial plan of a paid link shortening service and the opposite approach (easy-to-setup paid access to links).They were discussing adding Bitcoin as a payment method when it was 0.7 cents a pop.
  - spiderice 2y ago
    That part made me chuckle. > At the current ~$0.70 / bitcoin, this means that every American will be able to have ~$0.05 in his or her electronic wallet, once all bitcoins are generated. Assuming that the rest of the world does not participate at all and that bitcoins are evenly distributed. > Sure, you could imagine an instant dollar-to-bitcoin-to-dollar conversion at the point of payment. Or you could imagine a bitcoin2.org that generates more coins. Or you could hope for a massive surge in the value of the bitcoin. > I'd put my money on Paypal sticking around, though. Even back that people pointed out the obvious flaw of Bitcoin remaining at $0.70. But I wonder if any of them believed it would be at $100,000 in 14 years https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2407998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2407998
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
Aurornis 2y ago
Gumroad became my cautionary tale for startup equity for early engineers. I remember excitedly following the story from start. It was fun to follow along. Then around 2015 things weren’t working well, so they laid off most of the team. Investors sold the company back to the founder at a steep discount. As I recall, a major investor sold their ownership for $1. Just like that, the founding engineers who worked so hard lost their jobs and saw their equity valued down to nothing. It happens! However, the strange thing in this case was that the company kept going. They had laid (almost) everyone off and declared their equity worthless, yet the company was still making money and growing. My younger self struggled to understand how the founding engineers could have gone from working so hard on something to being laid off and seeing their equity wiped out while the business itself continued right on working and generating revenue. A lot has been written to put positive spin on those events. The founder claims to have helped out some of the early engineers in vague ways. However, I’ll never forget being a young, aspiring startup engineer and watching an entire startup team get wiped out of the business they helped create and then the business just kept on trucking for the founder who walked away with ownership of the company.
- adrr 2y ago
  How did lose all their equity? You can’t declare equity is worthless. You can raise new rounds with different valuations and dilute previous investors/employees but they would also dilute themselves.
  - rahimnathwani 2y ago
    Google 'drag along rights'.
  - hobofan 2y ago
    Even if they don't "lose" their equity, it might just turn essentially worthless. Very often "equity" founding staff receives is in the form of (V)ESOP s = (virtual) employee stock options, or other equity grants that only materialize in the case of an "exit event". Depending on how the exit events are specified in the contract, the founder taking the company private (/ divestment from the investors) might have resulted in an exit event with $1 value of the company.

It launched right here on HN 14 years ago. https://x.com/shl/status/1908090697984426227/photo/1 https://x.com/shl/status/1908090697984426227/photo/1

by rmason 2y ago

It launched right here on HN 14 years ago. https://x.com/shl/status/1908090697984426227/photo/1 https://x.com/shl/status/1908090697984426227/photo/1

ihowlatthemoon 2y ago

Original discussion thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614

owebmaster 2y ago
One day work to start a multi-million project, 13 years ago. That's the real vibing.
- ignoramous 2y ago
  Some might not be aware: It wasn't always smooth sailing for Sahil (could have had a much comfortable life if he stayed put at Pinterest). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37059594 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37059594
  - jatins 2y ago
    didn't he mention that he got fired from Pinterest?
occamschainsaw 2y ago
Interesting discussion on the merits of the initial plan of a paid link shortening service and the opposite approach (easy-to-setup paid access to links).They were discussing adding Bitcoin as a payment method when it was 0.7 cents a pop.
- spiderice 2y ago
  That part made me chuckle. > At the current ~$0.70 / bitcoin, this means that every American will be able to have ~$0.05 in his or her electronic wallet, once all bitcoins are generated. Assuming that the rest of the world does not participate at all and that bitcoins are evenly distributed. > Sure, you could imagine an instant dollar-to-bitcoin-to-dollar conversion at the point of payment. Or you could imagine a bitcoin2.org that generates more coins. Or you could hope for a massive surge in the value of the bitcoin. > I'd put my money on Paypal sticking around, though. Even back that people pointed out the obvious flaw of Bitcoin remaining at $0.70. But I wonder if any of them believed it would be at $100,000 in 14 years https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2407998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2407998

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

Aurornis 2y ago

Gumroad became my cautionary tale for startup equity for early engineers. I remember excitedly following the story from start. It was fun to follow along. Then around 2015 things weren’t working well, so they laid off most of the team. Investors sold the company back to the founder at a steep discount. As I recall, a major investor sold their ownership for $1. Just like that, the founding engineers who worked so hard lost their jobs and saw their equity valued down to nothing. It happens! However, the strange thing in this case was that the company kept going. They had laid (almost) everyone off and declared their equity worthless, yet the company was still making money and growing. My younger self struggled to understand how the founding engineers could have gone from working so hard on something to being laid off and seeing their equity wiped out while the business itself continued right on working and generating revenue. A lot has been written to put positive spin on those events. The founder claims to have helped out some of the early engineers in vague ways. However, I’ll never forget being a young, aspiring startup engineer and watching an entire startup team get wiped out of the business they helped create and then the business just kept on trucking for the founder who walked away with ownership of the company.

adrr 2y ago
How did lose all their equity? You can’t declare equity is worthless. You can raise new rounds with different valuations and dilute previous investors/employees but they would also dilute themselves.
- rahimnathwani 2y ago
  Google 'drag along rights'.
- hobofan 2y ago
  Even if they don't "lose" their equity, it might just turn essentially worthless. Very often "equity" founding staff receives is in the form of (V)ESOP s = (virtual) employee stock options, or other equity grants that only materialize in the case of an "exit event". Depending on how the exit events are specified in the contract, the founder taking the company private (/ divestment from the investors) might have resulted in an exit event with $1 value of the company.