5 ms·

How Hacker News motivated me to resign my job and launch my own startup (2011)

90 points by zio99 14y ago

GFischer 14y ago
It's a great story (especially for us outside the U.S.). It has already been discussed here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2340732 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2340732 but it's nice to revisit an old success story :)
sidcool 14y ago
Congratulations for launching. Welcome to hell! :) And wish you luck.
- GFischer 14y ago
  They launched a year ago, the title should say (2011) :) And they've already raised 10 millon dollars, and a few fights with ZenDesk too :P
january14n 14y ago
Good luck! and welcome to the new world!
tolliator 14y ago
I see you got getmefast to design your website, how much of that design is left in the current version, and how was the overall experience with that company? Thanks
- girishm 14y ago
  We have changed much of the old site design developed by getmefast after we had the bandwidth and resources to have an inhouse team. Our experience was good enough to get started with a website. However for a start just getting some good templates from themeforest may do the job also for a lower cost till you can afford to hire a top notch team.
acgourley 14y ago
I also have hacker news to thank for my entrepreneurial career, I think. There isn't a good story there, I've just been reading it for about 6 years, right about when I was graduating college, and the cult of YC indoctrinated me. Edit: For clarification, year 1 and 2 of hacker news were extremely focused on PG, PG's writings, YC, etc. So when I saw I was indoctrinated it's because the site was nothing but that.
- zio99 14y ago
  Was bitgym funded by YC? Really impressed by your business proposition and your bike hack: http://blog.bitgym.com/2012/03/our-first-lean-hypothesis/ http://blog.bitgym.com/2012/03/our-first-lean-hypothesis/ After 23 blog posts in 2 years, I'm sure there's more where that came from. Would you mind sharing your backstory here? Or a 1 minute rundown via email aaron [at] brownieinmotion [dot] ca. I would be honoured to spotlight bitgym in my book: http://sellfy.com/p/9j2z http://sellfy.com/p/9j2z A bit of background: http://startupframework.tumblr.com/post/29634915106/what-i-learnt-from-yc http://startupframework.tumblr.com/post/29634915106/what-i-l... Thanks Alex!
  - acgourley 14y ago
    We are not associated with or funded by YC, although Sam did fund us personally. I'll shoot you an email.
colkassad 14y ago
You know, I always groan a bit when I read headlines like this. I decided to click through so I could satisfy my pathetic desire to scoff and ended up reading a great story. Very inspiring, and I hope the best for you guys.
j2bax 14y ago
I'd be interested to know what the overall costs and quality would be for a US startup to move to India for lower operation costs at least for the initial stages. Does anyone have experience with this? Silicon Valley sounds great, but cost of living and cost of talent makes it seem out of reach at least for the near future.
ebbv 14y ago
What a funny coincidence, I was just looking at freshdesk yesterday. I really want to place our support software (Kayako), but there just aren't good options out there. Unfortunately SaaS doesn't work for us, but I wish these guys the best. Looks like they're on the right track and have the right priorities.
- combataircraft 14y ago
  I recommend you to use Zendesk; http://zendesk.com http://zendesk.com
  - pc86 14y ago
    > Unfortunately SaaS doesn't work for us > I recommend you to use Zendesk Come on
- dinkumthinkum 14y ago
  Interesting, what is the issue with SaaS?
  - famousactress 14y ago
    Dunno about OP, but some businesses have privacy or legal issues around data that they might want/need to store in these systems.. Things like healthcare info, etc.
whileonebegin 14y ago
Nice informative post. I also read your post, "How to incorporate a US Corporation from outside the USA". How is this legal? And how/who do you pay taxes?
- girishm 14y ago
  The US company is a Delaware C Corp and is a legal business entity in the US and pays taxes like any other corporation.
tarr11 14y ago
As a US/CA resident, i'm always stunned to see how low operating costs can be in India.
K2h 14y ago
I learned about the search at the bottom of the page. I have been here 6 months and been so excited with everything I never made it to the bottom to find it.
- vignesh_vs_in 14y ago
  me too never saw it, but i have pinned hnsearch tab :P
dinkumthinkum 14y ago
This is a good, well written, specific story of a startup. Nice job guys. :) - Just realized this is from quite while ago.
mbchandar 14y ago
inspiring girish
indianass 14y ago
moron indian hairy dark ass. motivate indian ass

90 points by zio99 14y ago

It's a great story (especially for us outside the U.S.). It has already been discussed here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2340732 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2340732 but it's nice to revisit an old success story :)

sidcool 14y ago

Congratulations for launching. Welcome to hell! :) And wish you luck.

GFischer 14y ago
They launched a year ago, the title should say (2011) :) And they've already raised 10 millon dollars, and a few fights with ZenDesk too :P

january14n 14y ago

Good luck! and welcome to the new world!

tolliator 14y ago

I see you got getmefast to design your website, how much of that design is left in the current version, and how was the overall experience with that company? Thanks

girishm 14y ago
We have changed much of the old site design developed by getmefast after we had the bandwidth and resources to have an inhouse team. Our experience was good enough to get started with a website. However for a start just getting some good templates from themeforest may do the job also for a lower cost till you can afford to hire a top notch team.

acgourley 14y ago

I also have hacker news to thank for my entrepreneurial career, I think. There isn't a good story there, I've just been reading it for about 6 years, right about when I was graduating college, and the cult of YC indoctrinated me. Edit: For clarification, year 1 and 2 of hacker news were extremely focused on PG, PG's writings, YC, etc. So when I saw I was indoctrinated it's because the site was nothing but that.

zio99 14y ago
Was bitgym funded by YC? Really impressed by your business proposition and your bike hack: http://blog.bitgym.com/2012/03/our-first-lean-hypothesis/ http://blog.bitgym.com/2012/03/our-first-lean-hypothesis/ After 23 blog posts in 2 years, I'm sure there's more where that came from. Would you mind sharing your backstory here? Or a 1 minute rundown via email aaron [at] brownieinmotion [dot] ca. I would be honoured to spotlight bitgym in my book: http://sellfy.com/p/9j2z http://sellfy.com/p/9j2z A bit of background: http://startupframework.tumblr.com/post/29634915106/what-i-learnt-from-yc http://startupframework.tumblr.com/post/29634915106/what-i-l... Thanks Alex!
- acgourley 14y ago
  We are not associated with or funded by YC, although Sam did fund us personally. I'll shoot you an email.

colkassad 14y ago

You know, I always groan a bit when I read headlines like this. I decided to click through so I could satisfy my pathetic desire to scoff and ended up reading a great story. Very inspiring, and I hope the best for you guys.

j2bax 14y ago

I'd be interested to know what the overall costs and quality would be for a US startup to move to India for lower operation costs at least for the initial stages. Does anyone have experience with this? Silicon Valley sounds great, but cost of living and cost of talent makes it seem out of reach at least for the near future.

ebbv 14y ago

What a funny coincidence, I was just looking at freshdesk yesterday. I really want to place our support software (Kayako), but there just aren't good options out there. Unfortunately SaaS doesn't work for us, but I wish these guys the best. Looks like they're on the right track and have the right priorities.

combataircraft 14y ago
I recommend you to use Zendesk; http://zendesk.com http://zendesk.com
- pc86 14y ago
  > Unfortunately SaaS doesn't work for us > I recommend you to use Zendesk Come on
dinkumthinkum 14y ago
Interesting, what is the issue with SaaS?
- famousactress 14y ago
  Dunno about OP, but some businesses have privacy or legal issues around data that they might want/need to store in these systems.. Things like healthcare info, etc.

whileonebegin 14y ago

Nice informative post. I also read your post, "How to incorporate a US Corporation from outside the USA". How is this legal? And how/who do you pay taxes?

girishm 14y ago
The US company is a Delaware C Corp and is a legal business entity in the US and pays taxes like any other corporation.

tarr11 14y ago

As a US/CA resident, i'm always stunned to see how low operating costs can be in India.

K2h 14y ago

I learned about the search at the bottom of the page. I have been here 6 months and been so excited with everything I never made it to the bottom to find it.

vignesh_vs_in 14y ago
me too never saw it, but i have pinned hnsearch tab :P

dinkumthinkum 14y ago

This is a good, well written, specific story of a startup. Nice job guys. :) - Just realized this is from quite while ago.

mbchandar 14y ago

inspiring girish

indianass 14y ago

moron indian hairy dark ass. motivate indian ass